Raising happy, healthy and successful kids doesn’t end with just teaching the Three Rs.
Nurturing the spirit of compassion and giving is crucial too.
To that end, TVOKids has organized a year-long Everybody Help Out campaign aimed at getting kids across the province to collect 250,000 pieces of food for Ontario food banks.
“This to me is a really great partnership,” says Gail Nyberg, executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto. “One of our hardest times is in the summer and leading up to fall. So this really helps. Any kind of initiative we can do in September is always welcome.
The initiative, launched today (September 3), is part of TVOKids’ contribution to the world-wide Why Poverty? campaign. TVO-wide contributions to the effort to raise awareness will launch in November. 
Meanwhile, the Ontario Fire Marshal, the YMCA and the Ontario Association of Food Banks have also joined the partnership.
Kids and families are urged to bring food contributions to their local fire departments, then log onto www.tvokids.com to add their contributions to the digital food counter. They can also upload photos of themselves and share the other ways they are giving back.
“The big message is trying to high-five that work that is already being done and to say, if you’re not already doing something, here’s something you can do,” says Marney Malabar, executive-in-charge of production of TVOKids’ afternoon program The Space. “We know a lot of food drives happen, so tell us what you’re doing.”
Throughout the year afternoon TVOKids programming will also feature profiles of Ontario kids who have found ways of giving back.
Whether it’s collecting cans of food while carolling over the winter holidays or asking for a bag of food to donate instead of birthday gifts, kids across the province have found lots of great ways to help others, Malabar said.
“And we want to say too, your kids don’t have to be one of these ‘uber’ kids doing these amazing things,” she says. “We want to feature even the smallest ways of giving back.”
In recent years, TVOKids has asked kids to add up their minutes of reading and their minutes of movement each day in two other campaigns, which both exceeded 2 million minutes registered.
Malabar says she’s hopeful kids can do the same with pieces of food.
Throughout the year TVOKids will also air segments aimed at teaching kids about how food banks work, talking to kids about how sometimes some families need help and other educational points.
Above Photo: Polkaroo and some of the rest of the TVOKids gang recently helped out at the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Learn more about talking to your kids about poverty and producer Karen Bridson-Boyczuk talks about how she taught her own son about poverty.
