Toronto Law Firms Compete in Support of the Food Bank

Blakes pie duel: picture of Robin Linley putting a pie on Thomas von Hahn’s head. Both are Blakes Partners.

Canadians are not only in the middle of the holiday season, attending social gatherings and exchanging greetings and gifts, but also in the middle of the fundraising season supporting our local food banks and children’s charities. Today is the last day for the 2012 Toronto Law Firm Daily Bread Food Bank Challenge. This friendly competition between law firms is in its 10th year organized by Blake, Cassels & Graydon, LLP.

Last year, 35 law firms participated and raised more than $245,000 in cash and food donations. In total, the Law Firm Challenge has raised more than $1.5 million for the Daily Bread Food Bank. This year 41 Toronto law firms are participating, and the hope is that monies raised match or exceed last year’s.

Why is this important? According to the Who’s Hungry 2012: Faces of Hunger report released September 19, 2012, use of the food banks in the Greater Toronto Area has increased by an average of 18% since the pre-recession period in 2008. The graphic below indicates the depth of hunger. 39% of adults using the GTA food banks have not eaten for a whole day because of a lack of money. 32% of GTA food bank clients are children.

In the new year, all the students from the law firms participating in the challenge will get together and there will be an award for the top fundraising firm and the top per capita firm.

Donations to the Daily Bread Food Bank can be made from links supplied by individual law firms, or via the Daily Bread Food Bank website.

This blog post was compiled with information and photo supplied by Celia Bobkin, Manager of Media and Public Relations at Blakes, and statistics from the Daily Bread Food Bank website.