A Look Back at 30 Years of Breakfast Club of Canada

This is a milestone year for Breakfast Club of Canada. November 1 marked our 30th anniversary — the perfect opportunity to reflect on the journey made possible through the invaluable support of volunteers, partners, schools, employees, and ambassadors. Since the launch of the first breakfast program in a single school, reaching 100 children, we’ve come a long way. So, while we’re celebrating three decades of lives changed, let’s take a moment to have a closer look at some of the turning points in our history.  

In 1994, the original organization (Club des petits déjeuners du Québec) was founded with a simple purpose: to serve a healthy breakfast to children and help them start their school day off right. The first breakfast program was launched at Lionel-Groulx School in Longueuil, Quebec. From these humble beginnings arose a powerful message that would serve as the foundation for a movement that would grow in leaps and bounds in the years to follow.  

By 1999, the Club was already having a decisive impact, with 50 schools signed up and over 4,000 children in communities across Quebec benefiting from a breakfast program. However, it soon became clear that there was an urgent need for programs like this at a Canada-wide level.  

The first program outside Quebec was set up in 2006 through Breakfast Clubs of Canada. And only four years later, the 1,000th program was opened, catapulting the number of children supported in the country to over 80,000. This growth and success were directly attributable to the hard work and dedication of volunteers, partners and donors across Canada. 

In 2012, the Club des petits déjeuners du Québec and Breakfast Clubs of Canada merged to form Breakfast Club of Canada / Club des petits déjeuners, bringing together the respective strengths of each and making for a more coordinated approach at the national level.  

With the onset of the pandemic in 2020 came numerous unexpected challenges. BCC was quick to adapt and introduce new measures designed to meet children’s nutritional needs. We teamed up with several strategic partners to ensure that students would continue to have access to a nutritious breakfast, despite the restrictions in place.  

A historic moment occurred in April 2024 when the federal government announced a $1 billion investment over five years in a National School Food Program. This stands as a clear acknowledgement of the central role that nutrition plays in a child’s academic success.  

As we think back on everything that led us here, it is impossible not to feel a huge debt of gratitude toward all those who have supported the Club’s work over the past 30 years. We are now operating in more than 3,800 schools and reaching over 650,000 children from coast to coast to coast. Although our job is far from done, the future looks bright. We will continue to work relentlessly to ensure that every child in the country has access to a nutritious breakfast so they can grow, learn and thrive. 

Find out more about the history of Breakfast Club of Canada in this video, which explores some of the highlights of our journey thus far.