This is What Neve Campbell Wants You to Know About Child Hunger in Canada

Photo: Ryan Emberley

Neve Campbell has an important message about child hunger in Canada

It’s estimated that one in five Canadian kids goes to school hungry each morning. Considering 60 per cent of learning takes place before lunch, that puts these children at a serious disadvantage—an issue that recently drew the attention of Canadian actress Neve Campbell.

“We need to level the playing field for kids whose parents aren’t able to provide for them each morning,” Campbell says. “It’s all about equality of opportunity.”

Spurred to action, the star of TV’s Party of Five and the Scream horror film franchise has allied herself with Breakfast Club of Canada, an organization that serves up nutritious breakfasts for 230,000 hungry kids across the country every day. “As the mother of two young boys, any charity that involves children, I’m going to feel really passionate about,” she says.

Having recently participated in a Breakfast Club of Canada breakfast program at a school in Vancouver, Campbell says she was moved by the impact this initiative can have. “It’s not just about breakfast,” she says. “There’s a real sense of community and family between the volunteers and the kids.”

The latest boost to the Breakfast Club of Canada’s efforts to stamp out child hunger is in the form of a “Buy A Cup, Give A Cup” partnership with Mott’s Fruitsations. From January 1 to March 31, for every cup of Mott’s Fruitsations purchased, a cup will be donated to Breakfast Club of Canada. The goal, says Campbell, is to help the organization come closer to feeding the one-million Canadian kids who could benefit from Breakfast Club of Canada programs.

Breakfast has always been important to Campbell, who kicked off her performing career not as an actress, but as a dancer. Throughout her teenage years in Toronto, she relied on breakfast to meet the physical demands of training with the National Ballet School. “We were dancing five hours a day, and often starting at 9 a.m. I had to have fuel in my body,” she says. That healthy eating regimen helped  land her big break as a dancer in the Toronto production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.

These days, Campbell’s focus has shifted to serving up a healthy breakfast for her six-year-old son, Caspian. “When he’s at school you can’t control what goes into him, what he’ll actually eat, so at least I know he’s getting a good meal in the morning,” she says. Although 12-month old Raynor is still a bit too young to appreciate the finer points of breakfast, he has his mom’s specialty to look forward to—”I’m good at French toast,” she laughs—and is showing a healthy appetite.

Check out more inspiring stories of Canadians who are making a difference.