When kids show up to school hungry, everything suffers — their focus, their energy, their ability to learn. The Barrie Food Bank’s School Fuel program exists to change that, and the Rotary Club of Barrie is proud to be one of the sponsors helping make it happen.
School Fuel delivers healthy snacks to school-aged children across Barrie every two weeks, with participating schools ordering food at a discounted rate made possible through sponsorships. The selection is practical and nutritious: cereals, bread, yogurt, milk, cheese, eggs, fresh fruit, and more. Schools choose what works best for their students, and Barrie Food Bank volunteers handle all the ordering, procurement, and delivery. Right now the program reaches 8,578 children across 34 local schools. That’s a lot of kids starting the day with something good in their system.
This year brought a milestone worth celebrating. The Barrie Food Bank unveiled a brand new refrigerated van, supported in part by the Rotary Club of Barrie alongside the Rotary Club of Barrie Huronia, Kempenfelt Rotary Club, The Pavlik Foundation, Food Banks Canada, Canada One Auto Group, the Faris Team, RBC Foundation, and others. The van strengthens the Food Bank’s ability to deliver fresh, perishable food directly to students, while also expanding their capacity to recover food from 14 local grocery partners six days a week. In 2025 alone, the Barrie Food Bank recovered over 1.8 million pounds of food, including more than 800,000 pounds of nutritious perishables diverted from waste.
Three vans. Six days a week. 8,578 kids. That’s what united for good looks like.