Our Impact
Over the past 10 years, summerlunch+ has been proud to support children’s health, nutrition, and learning during the summer months. What began as a small pilot has evolved into a program that now reaches hundreds of families — helping children build food skills, confidence, and healthier futures.
Since shifting to our at-home model in 2020, we’ve been able to expand our reach and deepen our impact, offering more families access to nourishing meals and hands-on food literacy education. Our research shows that the skills and habits children build over eight weeks of summer can extend far beyond the time we spend with children and their families.
Now, in our 11th year, summerlunch+ has taken another important step forward — expanding beyond Ontario to reach families in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia. This national expansion allows us to bring our proven summer food and nutrition model to more communities across Canada, while building a growing network of partners working together to address summer food insecurity.
As we celebrated our 11th summer, we are excited to share we reached:
6,931
children engaged in Canada
409,800
nutritious meals & snacks served
75,600
hours of food literacy education
Over the past 11 years, with the support of our partners and donors, we have achieved:
500+
families across Canada
1,331
children across Canada
2,430
family members
We are deeply grateful to everyone who has made this work possible.
Thanks to your support, every summer more children and families have the opportunity to nourish themselves, learn new skills, and build a stronger foundation for the future.
To learn more about our impact, explore our detailed reports below.
Beyond Summer
Thanks to the support of our donors and partners, summerlunch+ has expanded beyond the summer months. Over the past three years, we have delivered a specialized nutrition and cooking education program for children living with Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and those managing lifestyle-related conditions such as childhood obesity pre-diabetes and more.
Diabetes Program Reach
Our Research
SickKids Hospital and Toronto Metropolitan University has led clinical research to assess the impact of our virtual food skills programs for children with Type 1 Diabetes.The findings show that our program can significantly improve food literacy, cooking confidence, and nutrition behaviours among children and families.
In 2024, TMU produced a peer-reviewed paper for publication, and presented our findings at two international conferences. This study, published in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes, showed significant improvements in children's nutrition knowledge, cooking confidence, and positive attitudes toward healthy eating — critical skills for managing chronic health conditions.
200+
children
12,000+
nutritious meals & snacks served
4,000+
hours of diabetes and lifestyle education
Watch Joeie Schwartz and Vanita Pals present our research findings at the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes 2024.