BGIS Quebec Team Spreads Holiday Joy to Students Who Were all Smiles

Right before the holiday season, the Quebec CSR Team lead by Josee Deschamps and her team of over 30 Quebec BGIS Team Members put on their Santa hats and elf ears to spread a little Christmas joy to students at the école Saint-Justin School in Montreal for a second year.

The mission: to start the day off right by feeding breakfast to the school’s 650 students as part of the Breakfast for Learning (Déjeuner pour Apprendre) nutrition program in collaboration with The President’s Choice Children’s Foundation (La Fondation pour les enfants le Choix du Président).

The BGIS volunteers snuck into the school early on December 12th to prepare lunch boxes for each of the children. Clementines, cheese, yogourt, marshmallow squares and drinks were packaged and delivered to each of the 31 classrooms just as the morning school bell rang in the start of the day. As a special treat, the Team Members joined the kindergarten students to serve breakfast and participate in fun activities.

“BGIS is very committed to community involvement and our Quebec team loves volunteer initiatives like this one,” says Josee Deschamps, PSO for RP1 Quebec who has been actively involved in BGIS CSR activities since 2002. “Every child should look forward to the holiday season and for us to go into a school to feed children, who often have often nothing to eat, can make all the difference. The laughter and smiles on their faces is so rewarding. We look forward to participate again in this program next year.”

With bellies stuffed and faces smiling, the Team Members wished everyone a magical holiday season and began cleaning up the hundreds of boxes left over from the 650 lunches.

The President’s Choice Children’s Foundation was thrilled at the turnout and commended the Quebec team’s contributions that extend beyond the Breakfast for Learning program into other events such as the always successful annual Charity Golf tournament. The Quebec team looks forward to next year’s Breakfast for Learning event and have already marked it down on their calendars in anticipation.

As leading the Quebec CSR Team, I want to thank Josee and all our BGIS Team Members who were involved in this second year activity. I am extremely proud of our contribution to our Montreal community and increase of involvement in President’s Choice Children’s Foundation

Alain Chaput, Vice President, BGIS