Children’s Breakfast Clubs hosts Canada’s largest backpack giveaway

As parents and kids prepare to head back to school next week, a Toronto-based charity that provides meals to school children is working to ensure that students across the GTA are set up for success from day one, with all the school and hygiene supplies they need to excel in class.

Hundreds of volunteers gathered at the CNE grounds on Monday morning to pack backpacks with items like notebooks, planners, pencil cases, lunch boxes and other school essentials. More than 4,000 backpacks were prepared for the Children’s Breakfast Clubs Annual Backpack Giveaway — dubbed the country’s largest giveaway of its kind.

“It really is the largest because the need is so high — it boggles your mind. We gave out 2,000 [backpacks] last year, we’re giving out 4,100 this year,” said Zubeda Nanji, Executive Director of Children’s Breakfast Clubs.

“You can’t wrap your head around the need and I think if I had 7,000, I would be able to give 7,000 out — that’s how bad the need is and it increases every year.”

Nanji explains that while the need continues to grow, support for the event grows with it, as more sponsors sign on — both corporations and private citizens.

“People realize that if they can give a little bit to make somebody else’s life better, they are helping — which is amazing,” she said.

“I think people are thinking about paying it forward — if they had a hard time, and they’re doing well now, they’re saying ‘how can we support and help other people?’ I don’t have enough words to express the kindness and generosity of people.”

The families who will receive the backpacks are part of Children’s Breakfast Clubs, participating in either their breakfast or lunch program and pre-registered for the giveaway. The charity also works with various divisions of police to help register children for the program from within those communities.

While backpacks provide the basics, Nanji says the initiative is also about showing children that their community cares about them and their futures.

“People who have are giving back. They realize that their children are fortunate, and they want to give to kids who are not as fortunate, whose parents are having a hard time,” she says.

“[When] they’re having a hard time paying for groceries, backpacks and the supplies that go in the backpack is the last thing on their list.”

Nanji emphasized that the program is made possible by the kindness of many people and agencies coming together.

Referring to the large bags of packed backpacks being readied to be shipped out, she said, “We are the conduit — we asked for help, and look what happened.”