By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada
February 3, 2025
Six hundred BGC Club locations across Canada serve nearly 150,000 children and youth. Each Club is being asked to do more to support young people, but they don’t always have the resources they need.

BGC Clubs support communities in key issue areas
During my time with BGC, I’ve had the opportunity to visit almost every one of our 85 BGC Clubs, and two truths stand out: Our Clubs are very dynamic, and they face challenges every day. Yet, repeatedly, Clubs rise above challenges to provide great service in their communities.
While the services provided at each Club look a little different, they all support key issue areas: before- and after-school care, youth employment, youth mental health, food insecurity, and learning, to name a few.
Those 85 BGC Clubs provide six hundred Club locations nationwide and serve 150,000 children and youth. With rising living costs, each Club is being asked to do more to support young people in their communities.
For example, we know that Canadians are facing food insecurity more than ever. From 2018 to 2022, food costs rose by 19.1%. Recent reports show that as of 2023, 1 in 4 Canadian children under 18 live in food-insecure households—that’s 2.8 million young people. Times like these are when BGC Clubs come in.
At BGC Canada, food support means more than just providing snacks
On top of providing nearly 7 million healthy meals and snacks every year, our food programs teach young people food literacy—where food comes from, how to prepare it, and how to make healthy choices. Without food literacy, food security is impossible.
When I visit a Club, food is the hub for everything: it’s the snack the kids gravitate to immediately when coming through the doors. It’s the smell of a hot dinner wafting through the halls for kids and families. And it’s making sure kids have the food they need for their family when they leave each night.
RELATED: BGC Clubs provide kids with basic needs so they can have brighter futures
Our Kid Food Nation and Kid Chef Nation programs were recently re-designed to help young people develop their food knowledge and cooking skills. This means that not only do they get healthy meals from their Club, but they also get skills that set them up for lifelong success.
Programs like these are why 81% of our kids know how to make healthier food choices. But with increasing food costs, BGC Clubs are struggling.
BGC Clubs have continued to prove their resiliency by supporting families with their food needs, but we can’t do it alone. For BGC Clubs to continue offering impactful programs and feed kids, we need your help. Together, we can provide opportunities to the children, teens, parents, and communities that turn to us for support.
