This year’s annual Smile Cookie week raised a “sweet” $115,761.50 in Brantford, that’s more than $8,500 over the previous year’s local event. Whether it was for the love of the sweet smiling treats, or the not-for-profit organizations that they support, the Brantford community rallied around Tim Hortons Restaurants. 100% of the proceeds will be shared equally to support Brant Food For Thought and the Lansdowne Children’s Centre Foundation.
Picture 1 (L to R): Angee Turnbull, Executive Director of Lansdowne Children’s Centre Foundation, Gisèle Budgell, Program Director of Brant Food For Thought; Ken Molloy, Tim Hortons owner
Picture 2 (L to R): Gisèle Budgell, Program Director of Brant Food For Thought; Rita-Marie Hadley, Executive Director of Lansdowne Children’s Centre; Candace Kingyens, Sr. Development Officer for Lansdowne Foundation.
The soft chocolate chip cookies with the signature icing smiles were offered by Tim Hortons across Canada for only $1, available exclusively during the week of September 19 through 25, with 100% of proceeds donated to community organizations. This year’s Smile Cookie raised over $15 million to support more than 600 charities across Canada.
In Brantford, 19 participating locations promoted the effort in support of Brant Food For Thought and Lansdowne Children’s Centre Foundation. Tom Babic, Sr. Manager for Regional Marketing across Canada shared that, “All of us at Tim Hortons are so grateful to be able to work with incredible community partners and make a positive difference.”
Gisèle Budgell, Program Director at Brant Food For Thought, expressed that “this campaign represents a significant investment in the sustainability of universal student nutrition programs in our local schools.”
“We are adding three new universal student nutrition programs this school year,” continued Budgell. “That in itself is significant, since we have not had the funding nor the capacity to scale up the number of programs offered in local schools nor be able to purchase equipment and infrastructure on a larger scale. These elements are critical to the safe and effective operation of programs. We are extremely grateful for the efforts of the Brantford Tim Hortons owners and their teams for making this happen.”
Brant Food For Thought is an incorporated, registered charity that contributes to a child’s ability to learn by supporting and facilitating Universal Student Nutrition Programs in elementary and secondary schools in Brantford and in the County of Brant.
For the current school year 2022-2023, Brant Food For Thought anticipates supporting close to 10,000 children and youth on a weekly basis, in 51 programs, to benefit from close to 1 million healthy breakfasts, snacks and meals during the year. Thank you Brantford for rallying behind the cause of good nutrition for children and youth in our community to help maximize their learning success at school and beyond.