Print

E-mail

Text

A barbecue fundraiser in support of Start Me Up, a student breakfast program, was held at Central Commerce C.I. late last month.

The barbecue saw students from West Toronto C.I., where Start Me Up started, partnered with students from Central Commerce. Students sold one-dollar tickets over the previous week leading up to the barbecue.

The program launched three years ago by Maria Campodonico, a teacher at West Toronto, after she conducted a survey trying to garner a response to several questions she had: "Why students were aggressive", "Why they were always angry", "Why they do not perform well at school?"

Campodonico discovered that 60 per cent of the students were not eating breakfast, for a variety of reasons.

Start Me Up gives students the opportunity to learn about the value of a nutritious breakfast and introduces them to a wide selection of healthy foods from cereals, milk, and fruit to yogurt, eggs, bagels, fruit smoothies and more.

Grade 11 Central Commerce student Stacy Costa said she is happy with the program because, "Kids are not worried about hunger because before during the day and morning you would not think about what was going on in class, you'd be thinking 'I'm so hungry, I want food', so it is better like this. You think 'I am so fresh, my stomach is full,'" she said.

Enjoying a healthy breakfast at school, at no cost, not only helps students feel fresh, it also helps students get to know each other.

"I have met a lot of people that I didn't know at school and that I would never talk to," said Costa.

Melanie Mandela, a student at West Toronto who helps make and serve breakfast to her fellow students, said, "I get to love my peers and it is a pleasure to be helping them."

Campodonico said students help prepare all the meals and assist in serving, cleaning and fundraising events. "I have four students that get paid $100 per week as an honorarium for their work," she said.

The program also helps teachers get to know their students outside a classroom environment and allows students to get to know each other better.

Campodonico sees relationships improving in school.

"I find that students are a lot happier; they have become like a family."

An ancillary dividend Start Me Up has provided is that students are no longer late for school because they come early for breakfast.

Jennifer Menzias, the program's coordinator at Central Commerce who adopted the program at her school said, "It brings a positive environment."

Campodonico started the program with $500 and limited resources but now has the support of various associations including Cobs Bakery and Breakfast for Learning, as well as the support of friends, parents, students, and from fundraising events like the Oct. 29 barbecue.

Today, the program has an operating budget of $40,000. Last year Star Me Up served 12,000 breakfasts to the West Toronto school population and received recognition from the Toronto District School Board.

For now Campodonico is happy that more than 60 per cent of the school population is getting breakfast including teachers who also bring the breakfast to students who were not able to attend in the morning.