A newly established not-for-profit’s first event is aimed at tackling childhood food insecurity and galvanizing people to help.
Food4Kids Muskoka will hold a “breakfast gala” on Nov. 7 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Huntsville’s Deerhurst Resort.
Sarah Thatcher, founding member of the Muskoka chapter, says attendees will get to enjoy a full breakfast buffet while learning about how food insecurity is impacting our community and how residents and businesses can get involved. She says Dara Howell, the Huntsville-born Olympic freestyle skiing gold medalist, will give a keynote address about the importance of nutrition for kids.
According to Thatcher, Deerhurst is a founding partner of the chapter and is covering the overhead of the event. “The beauty of this event is that because the food cost, event space, and staffing cost is all covered, all the proceeds will come back directly to feeding kids in our community,” she says.
Every weekend, Food4Kids Muskoka discreetly distributes food to roughly 50 students at Huntsville Public School, Pine Glen Public School, and Spruce Glen Public School whose families might not have the means to keep them fed without school-based breakfast programs. Thatcher says since the not-for-profit launched last month, they’ve made five weekend food drops, with the next scheduled for this Friday.
“I’ve been chatting with different teachers, principals, who’ve said the anxiety is increasing for kids on Thursdays and Fridays in anticipation of going home,” says Thatcher. “So we know food insecurity has existed, but we’re really seeing a rise of that across the province.”
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thatcher says the need has only increased, with people struggling to afford basic necessities such as housing, food, and gas.
“[Muskoka is] really unique in the sense that we’re so spread apart here,” says Thatcher. “It’s different if you have a local community downtown, where kids could walk to the grocery store or walk to the convenience store. But when you have children who take a bus home for 45 minutes, they don’t really have any options if they get home and there’s not enough there for them.”
Tickets are $75 and can be bought here, or you can donate directly to Food4Kids Muskoka.
