Recent Highlights
2024-2025
Nutrition Month 2025
It takes a village to raise a child, and in our schools, it also takes the tireless efforts of dedicated volunteers to ensure that all students receive nutritious meals and snacks through our Student Nutrition Programs. Our immense gratitude goes out to all of our school administrators, SNP coordinators and other volunteers for their commitment to student health and well-being.
For the fourth year, we held a random draw from among the many schools who submitted photos and stories about their incredible SNP volunteers during Nutrition Month in March, and we visited the winning schools during Volunteer Month in April to present these individuals with a certificate of appreciation and a gift as a token of our thanks. Congratulations to this year’s winners:
Carol & Mary (have been running the SNP at St. Oscar Romero since 1998), Tamara R. (St. Francis Xavier), Paula F. & Natercia M. (St. Anthony), & Monica G. (St. Mother Teresa CSS).
Toronto Marlies Game Day 2025
Close to 7,000 students were on hand to cheer on the Toronto Marlies to victory at the annual TCDSB-AFL Marlies School Day Game on March 6th. AFL is grateful to MLSE (the Marlies) for donating more than $27,000 to help us support urgent student needs.
A Team Pitch Day 2025
Our A Teams have grown to over 20 TCDSB high schools and 16 A teams were involved from across the TCDSB in this year’s 2024 A Team Believe Initiative. Each team worked through a number of assignments and online training sessions on the road to coming up with ideas for projects/ initiatives in response to identified needs in their schools. These student leaders blew us away at pitch day on February 21st.
All teams, whether they participated in Pitch Day or not, received $1,000 to help them initiate projects and they are all winners in our books. The top four Marshall McLuhan-1st, Loretto College-2nd, Loretto Abbey-3rd, Father Henry Carr-4th, walked away with an additional $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, and $500 respectively. Congratulations to all the angels who made this year’s A Team Believe initiative a tremendous success.
Additionally, we piloted our first elementary A Team from St. Demetris who have an enthusiastic group of grade 6, 7, & 8 students who want to make a difference in their community. We are looking forward to starting A Teams in more elementary schools next A Team season!
Special thanks goes out to Sarah Wells, the Olympian for supporting us and guiding the students through this program again this year and as well to Focus on Youth and belairdirect for sponsoring us to be able to run this program on the level we do, year after year.
Make Happy Tummies
On January 30th, the TCDSB and Make Happy Tummies Community came together to provide a breakfast program for the youth at St. Augustine in North York. To say it was an uplifting event would be an understatement. The joy in the room—spreading across two gyms in the hallway and throughout the entire school—was incredible. This happiness was also reflected in the shared experiences of over 70 volunteers from the TCDSB & Make Happy Tummies campaign community.
It's not always obvious that one in three children is at risk of going to school on an empty stomach. Many children may not admit that they are hungry. The meals they receive are provided in a stigma-free environment, enjoyed with friends, and serve to build connections, nurture school spirit, and, importantly, provide essential nourishment.
This nourishment enables children to engage confidently in their learning and activities throughout the day.
Similar breakfast events are taking place in British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia. Consider contributing to the #fightagainsthunger by making a donation today and becoming an #angelamongus.
2024 Snowball Gala: An Evening to Feed Dreams
What a night it was as TCDSB students, staff, families, Trustees, sponsors and business partners came together in support of student nutrition and well-being! With the common goal to help children and youth in need, these generous supporters enjoyed an evening of dining and dancing, a silent auction, raffle draw, and of course one of the highlights of the evening: performances by talented students from Holy Spirit Catholic School, Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School and Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School. If you missed it this year, watch for future emails about upcoming special events.
AFL's FIRST EVER Family Bowling Day
More than 100 bowling enthusiasts came out in support of AFL, helping us raise close to $3,000. Our thanks is extended not only to those who participated, but also to our sponsor the Filipino Centre Toronto, Trustee Garry Tanuan who rallied the Filipino community to come out and support the event, and of course to our delightful hosts at Markham Bowl. Lots of prizes were handed out, and everyone enjoyed a great day of fun, food and friendship.