London Central Students Help Provide 46,000 Meals

“The kindness and generosity of young people, I think, is often very much understated,” Bill Smolders, science teacher at London Central Secondary School, said. “Initiatives like this, and how these students are able to really rally around something, is proof that that's not the case.”

As part of the Ontario Student Leadership Conference (OSLC), students from London Central Secondary School fundraised for Second Harvest and together raised enough to provide more than 46,000 meals to community organizations with food programs across the country, including in their own city of London.

"Since we go to a downtown school, we unfortunately are witness to people that go hungry each day,” shared Jack Flaherty, top fundraising student at London Central. “So, we wanted to help make a difference in our community by fundraising for Second Harvest. While fundraising door to door in our neighbourhood, we found that having conversations about Second Harvest motivated us to continue raising money as people were very receptive of the cause.”

Using Second Harvest’s online fundraising platform, students shared that creating personal fundraising pages and promoting their campaigns made it simple to get started.

“We saw how much food is wasted, but now we have the chance to kind of do something about it and help other people in need,” one student shared.

Students were especially inspired by Second Harvest’s commitment to making sure nourishing food reaches people who need it, rather than let good food go uneaten as surplus.

“Even in London, there are people in our community who can benefit from an organization like Second Harvest,” another student explained. “So I think it’s something that’s very relatable and applicable.”

They also valued seeing how far each contribution could stretch. With every dollar providing five meals, students could clearly see the impact of their efforts in the fight against hunger.

“Knowing that five meals per dollar are given to people in need is amazing,” another student added.

“There’s so much power that young people can have when they feel motivated and when they feel like they are in a place where they can actually make a meaningful difference,” Bill reflected.

Second Harvest is grateful to the students and educators at London Central Secondary School for their compassion, leadership and commitment to helping nourish communities — both locally and across Canada.

Like the students at London Central Secondary, your school or community group can make a real impact in the fight against hunger.

Learn how you can get involved today! Or reach us directly at fundraise@secondharvest.ca

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