Finance committee  It's critical. The reality is that a child who is malnourished.... This is what we're facing in a lot of communities. It's not just children who are hungry. We're facing children who are malnourished because their parents have to choose between paying the rent, paying utilities and buying quality food or even buying food, period.

Finance committee  Yes, we definitely are. We have a culinary team on site that goes through a holistic food guide and looks at how we can make sure food is not just filling the hunger spaces but also uplifting and nourishing a child for an optimal future. When the premier was at our site, he was cutting up fresh vegetables and fruits, and we had all of these great snacks, which, again, have an impact.

Finance committee  Most definitely. The coalition has been around for I believe over 25 years in some form, and it looks at food systems, specifically as they relate to school food programs. The model and the movement have, as you said, 300 members. It's nationwide. We work in synergy with each other to share models and different strategies to ensure that we are able to impact, to at least some degree on the local level, our student nutrition programs in our various community spaces.

Finance committee  Well, we've learned first-hand about the impact of children and youth's access. We're focusing on food access because it permeates the home. When we started shifting away from serving any food to being very intentional with our food charter, focusing on nutrient-dense food and understanding food literacy, we saw that parents were coming back.

Finance committee  Definitely. As I mentioned before, we provide programs from cradle to career. That's infant care all the way up to youth outreach, youth academic bridging and youth employment programs. We operate a main site and a hub site. We provide services in 26 other satellite sites. They range from licensed child care and early years learning to children and early teen recreational programs.

Finance committee  Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to share a bit of what's happening for us. We're an example of the potential that can be replicated across the country from investing in a club or organization like ours. This is a very historic moment for BGC East Scarborough.