Cookie sales bringing a smile to Sarnia-area school nutrition program

Programs helping feed 9,600 students at 46 schools in Sarnia and Lambton County are getting a boost this week from 11 Tim Hortons locations in the city.

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The company’s smile cookie fundraising campaign, traditionally held in May, is being repeated this year during the holidays for the first time with proceeds from sale of the specialty cookies going to local charities, as well as Tim Hortons Foundation camps.

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Half of the proceeds from cookie sales through Sunday at 11 locations in Sarnia will go to the Ontario Student Nutrition Program Lambton, with the other half going to the foundation.

“We were overwhelmed to say the least,” said Leslie Palimaka, with the VON-based nutrition program. “It will go a long way to support schools, this school year, being able to buy nutritious food for their students.”

The nutrition program receives some funding from the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and, “while we’re very grateful for it, it does not cover the total amount of funding required to support healthy food in schools,” she said.

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Fundraising and support from partners also helps with the costs, but Palimaka said she heard from one school this week that it is already out of funding for its nutrition program.

The rising cost of food has been a challenge recently and “we know that this will go a long way,” Palimaka said about support from the holiday smile cookie campaign.

Lambton County has about 57 schools in total and the nutrition program operates in 46 of them, she said.

“We leave it up to the schools to connect with us and identify that they would like to have a student nutrition program.”

Both elementary and secondary schools are able to enter the program as funding becomes available and, locally, four new schools were added this year with support from the Sarnia-based charity Noelle’s Gift, Palimaka said.

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Schools can choose to offer a meal or a snack at least three school days a week.

“We leave it up to each school to design their own program,” Palimaka said.

“It can happen before the bell in the morning or it can happen throughout the school day in their classroom” or “as a grab-and-go coming off the bus in the morning,” she said.

“We hope our community rallies around student nutrition this week and participates in the smile cookie campaign,” Palimaka said.

Other charities are being supported by other Tim Hortons locations in Lambton during the campaign. A map with locations and their charities can be found online at www.timhortons.ca/holiday-smile-cookie-biscuit-sourire-des-fetes.

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