Second Harvest is asking Torontonians for their lunch money.
Starting next Monday Feburary 25th, Second Harvest will roll out their annual week-long
Lunch Money Days fundraising campaign. The initiative encourages city workers to donate the equivalent of their lunch money to Second Harvest--for every $10 donation, Second Harvest can provide 20 healthy meals for those in need.
On February 28th, hundreds of Second Harvest volunteers will be at TTC stations collecting individual donations. The food-rescue organization has also teamed up with businesses and schools who will host their own lunch money fundraising events.
And, as with past years, Second Harvest will complement their fundraising efforts with a number of food-related events throughout the week.
This year's feature event is lunchtime food festival at Yonge and Dundas Square. On February 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 15 local restaurants will be offering snack-sized dishes ranging for $3 to $5.
"We've been doing the Yonge-Dundas Sqaure event for three years now," says Katherine Moffat, interim director of communications with Second Harvest. "All of the food will be donated by these vendors. So people will buy tickets, which will essentially be a donation to Second Harvest, and they can take the tickets and trade them in for whatever food they would like."
"There's been a lot of enthusiasm for this event and we're definitely in expansion mode. Last year we had eight vendors, so we're almost doubling in size."
Local Toronto businesses are also getting involved in the February fund-raising campaign. On February 27, from 12 to 2 p.m. the Calphalon Culinary Center will host a public lunch in-store for a minimum $5 donation. On February 28, Salad King's Yonge Street location will donate all the day's proceeds to Second Harvest. And, for the whole month of February, Dufflet's Pastries will donate $1 to Second Harvest for every Cowboy Cookie sold.
Thanks to the success of the February fundraiser, Second Harvest, says Moffat, is working "to expand the campaign into a year-long event."
"We’ve recruited over 200 corporate and community groups to do fundraising. We don’t dictate how they raise the money, you could do anything from having a bake sale to a disco party (like one our fundraisers did). These fundraisers really help to supplement the fundraising work we do during February."
Last year's campaign Lunch Money Days raised enough funds to provide 675,000 meals.
Second Harvest, a Toronto food-rescue program founded in 1985, picks up food that would otherwise be discarded--but is nonetheless edible and nutritional--and delivers it to more than 200 agencies across the Toronto
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Katherine Moffat, Interim Director of Communications, Second Harvest