This year the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington raised a record-breaking $200,000 at its 2015 Around the World Gala.
The year also saw donors step up to other needs including helping the 2,053 children that were referred to the Children’s Foundation Adopt-A-Family program at Christmas. It was a life-changing year for many children and their families thanks to this incredible support. Unfortunately, life can change dramatically for a family when a job loss or illness happens, bring new children to the Children’s Foundation for help.
To continue to meet the current and arising needs, the foundation carefully reviews how best to use donated funds to offer the most impact to the children who need help.
This year the foundation’s doing just that through four programs.
Food and Friends
The community continues to see an increase in the cost to operate student nutrition programs due to the rising cost of groceries and the lower Canadian dollar. Many schools struggle to operate five days a week or to include fresh fruits and vegetables on the menu.
Picturing any child in the community going hungry is tough. For many students that come to the programs in high-need neighbourhoods, this will sometimes be the only food they eat that day.
In 2016, the foundation is working to ensure that the programs that operate in these neighbourhoods are operating five days a week as “best in class” by providing sufficient funding and volunteer support, and by exploring more ways to educate students on healthy eating.
Scholarships
For many youth, attending post-secondary education is just not feasible.
The Future Fund Scholarships are awarded to one student from each high school in Guelph and Wellington who have overcome difficult life situations to succeed in graduating high school.
Free to Play
Free to Play provides financial assistance for children from low-income families for registration fees for Sports, arts, and summer camp.
In Guelph and Wellington, 4,500 children are financially eligible for this program but currently only 1,000 are being assisted. In 2016, additional funds are being made available to increase this number, along with targeted outreach to inform families about the program.
Adopt-A-Family
Each year the foundation hopes that the demand for its Adopt-A-Family holiday support program will decline but once again the number of families assisted increased by over 50 families this year. In 2016, the foundation is committed to working in partnership with the community to ensure that the need is met during the particularly stressful Christmas season. “It is our hope that one day our work will be done,” said Glenna Banda, executive director.
“But until there are no children in our community who go hungry, who are feeling isolated, or who cannot envision a bright future, we will continue to help these kids build a better future for themselves. We will continue to reach out to our community to fundraise and continue this important work.”
