Here are the top nine entries of the CBC School Challenge

As part of CBC's annual holiday campaign, Make the Season Kind, Daily Bread Food Bank, Feed Ontario, and food banks across the province partnered with the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) to launch the CBC School Challenge.   

The 2024 Challenge invited classrooms at publicly funded schools across the province to explore how food insecurity affects their community.

ETFO prepared the resources for the Challenge, which encouraged participating classes to discuss food insecurity and submit an entry in their chosen format.

We received an overwhelming number of excellent submissions. Here are the top outstanding entries by division based on a judging panel.

Primary (Grades 1-3)

• S. Vollmer's class at Colborne Public School in Colborne

• R. Anderson and R. Macaskill 's class at Parkway Public School in Brampton

• M. Haag's class at Victoria Village Public School in Toronto

Junior (Grades 4-6)

• C. Statten's class at Milliken Mills P.S. in Markham 

• N. Srivastava's class at Churchill Meadows Public School in Mississauga 

• C. Ouattara Sano's class at Clairville Junior Public School in Etobicoke

Intermediate (Grades 7-8)

• N. Patel's class at Cedarwood Public School in Markham

• C. Cattell's class at Zion Heights Middle School in North York

• J. Ing's class at Henry Kelsey Senior Public School in Scarborough

The feedback from the participating schools and classes was overwhelmingly positive.

"I wanted to share with you how proud I am of my incredible class as we participated in the CBC Challenge on food insecurity," said Ms. Patel, whose Cedarwood Public School class submitted an entry in the intermediate category.

"This initiative has truly resonated with my students, sparking meaningful conversations and inspiring action. It not only taught my students about food insecurity, but has also shown them the power of compassion, teamwork, and community action."

These classes will be celebrated with a pizza lunch courtesy of Pizza Pizza.

The participating staff at CBC, Daily Bread Food Bank, Feed Ontario and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario congratulate this year's top nine and all the teachers and students who participated in this year's challenge. It's a wonderful reminder of the importance of food security education.

The CBC School Challenge was part of CBC's Make the Season Kind campaign. Your generosity and kindness raised an astounding $7.8 million for food banks across the country.