Students tackle food insecurity through the CBC School Challenge

Last December, Grade 5 students at Milliken Mills Public School covered their classroom walls with kid-created posters on “equality vs. equity,” food bank use growth and food deserts. Grade 2 students at Parkway Public School held a spoken word performance on food insecurity. At Cedarwood Public School, a class in Grade 7 raised $800 and budgeted out a shop at No Frills to fill their school’s on-site food bank. 

These were just a few of the amazing entries we had the honour of reviewing for the new CBC School Challenge, a part of CBC’s Make the Season Kind campaign in support of food banks. The challenge — a collaboration between the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, CBC, Daily Bread Food Bank and Feed Ontario — provided teachers across Ontario with age-appropriate lesson plans on food insecurity and culminated in a final project so students could showcase what they learned.  

We could not be more excited to announce the following entries as this year’s selection of outstanding submissions. Each one has earned a special pizza lunch, courtesy of Pizza Pizza, along with a certificate commemorating their work. 

Primary (Grades 1-3): 

• Colborne Public School’s Grade 3 class, taught by Susan Vollmer:  
  Crafted bookmarks promoting awareness of food insecurity for distribution at their library 

• Parkway Public School’s Grade 2 class, taught by Rose-Marie Andersen:  
  Performed a spoken word poem on food insecurity 

• Victoria Village Public School’s Grade 3 class, taught by Meghan Haag:  
  Ran a food drive, then created recipes for healthy meals inspired by the donations 

Junior (Grades 4-6): 

• Churchill Meadows Public School’s Grade 5 class, taught by Nirja Srivastava:
  Ran a food drive, promoting it with school announcements and a “fashion show” assembly where the kids dressed up as items most needed for donation 

• Clairville Junior School’s Grade 4 class, taught by Caini Ouattara Sano:  
  Created posters raising awareness of food insecurity and made plans to start a breakfast club 

• Milliken Mills Public School’s Grade 5 class, taught by Courtney Statten:  
  Covered their classroom walls with handmade posters on themes like the growth of food bank use, privilege and power, and maps of food access 

Intermediate (Grades 7-8): 

• Cedarwood Public School’s Grade 7 class, taught by Neema Patel:  
  Filled their school’s on-site food bank with culturally appropriate food by raising $800 and budgeting out a grocery shop at No Frills 

• Henry Kelsey Senior Public School’s Grade 7 class, taught by Joannie Ing:  
  Group and individual projects included essays, posters, slideshows, and an illustrated storybook 

• Zion Heights Middle School’s Grade 8 class, taught by Cory Cattell:  
  Group projects included a news show styled after CBC’s The National and the creation of a food bank delivery app

Congratulations to these classes, and to all participants in this year’s challenge! Thank you for your leadership, curiosity and care about food insecurity and its impact on our communities.  

Learn more about the new School Challenge or download a copy of the toolkit to explore the curriculum.