Breakfast Club of Canada projects multi-million dollar shortfall as fundraising campaign kicks off
The Breakfast Club of Canada’s annual fundraising campaign comes as the organization braces for the impacts of a ‘perfect storm of obstacles’ ahead of the upcoming school year.
President and chief executive Tommy Kulczyk said in a release today (August 23) that food inflation, pandemic-related increases to operating costs and the expansion of the club’s programs are expected to substantially impact its operations.
"Our expenses for food, equipment and transportation are increasing at a faster rate than our revenues and breakfast programs are becoming more expensive to maintain,” he stated
The club and its partners (including retailers such as Walmart and Costco) currently run more than 3,500 school nutrition programs, with a couple hundred schools (and counting) on the waitlist.
In the absence of a National School Food Program and temporary emergency funding from the government, maintaining support for existing programs during the upcoming 2022-2023 school year is expected to be a struggle as the organization grows more reliant on individual and corporate contributions.
According to revenue projections, in order to maintain the school nutrition programs already backed in part by the Breakfast Club of Canada, the organization anticipates a financial shortfall of a "couple million" for the upcoming school year.
At this time, no new additional breakfast programs can be supported.
The Back-to-School Campaign, the Club's largest fundraising campaign of the year, will run until Oct. 30, 2022.