Our Mission.
Our mission at summerlunch+ is to grow great kids with our comprehensive cooking and nutrition education program where the child drives positive lifestyle changes within the family home.
Our Story.
summerlunch+ began in 2015 when Susan Wright saw a need for nutritious meals and learning opportunities during summer break when school food programs paused. Launched in 2016 in Toronto’s Thorncliffe community, summerlunch+ provided 400 campers daily with nutritious meals and food education. By 2019, it expanded to seven sites, serving 1,000 children daily, with 40 staff.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, students were at home for months, missing their school food programs, and summer camps were canceled. This spurred the creation of "summerlunch+ at Home” by Registered Dietitians. This brought food literacy into homes and encouraged families to cook, learn, and eat together. This shift strengthened family bonds and facilitated lifelong healthy habits.
Now, summerlunch+ has expanded beyond summer. Our program strengthened through dietitetic leadership and academic partnerships with Toronto Metropolitan University and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. We continue to innovate and grow, reaching more families and nurturing kids’ health and learning year-round. We are grateful for our supporters and so excited about what’s in store!
Nutrition Education
What We Do.
Led by Registered Dietitians, our program empowers kids to make informed food choices that nourish both their bodies and minds.
Food Literacy
We help participants build food literacy, boosting their confidence to make healthier decisions that can last a lifetime.
Build Food Skills
Kids learn essential kitchen skills like chopping, mixing, measuring, and reading recipes, equipping them with life-long abilities to prepare meals for themselves and their families.
Meet the Team.
We have a great team at summerlunch+! Here are the folks behind the great food programming, your weekly cooking sessions, behind-the-scenes work and who run the Google classrooms!
Leadership and Programming
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Founder
Susan Wright worked in student nutrition for several years, as the Regional Director for Ontario at the Breakfast Club of Canada. She was regularly asked by parents, community groups and by students themselves for support outside of the school day, and decided to launch summerlunch+ to address that need.
Susan is a human resources professional with over 20 years of experience in the corporate, non-profit, and public sectors. She worked at Bank of Montreal and Labatt for a combined ten years, then with the Earth Ranger Foundation, JUMP Math, and the Breakfast Club of Canada for another decade. She wants to give young people a great start in life, and believes that healthy food, lots of activity, and sharing meals with friends and family is the basis for good living!
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Program and Grants Coordinator
Madiha is a member of the Thorncliffe Park community and has been working with SL+ for 7 years. Her favourite recipe is black bean brownies and she loves working and interacting with the kids in the community to help them learn how to cook!
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Director of Programs and PartnershipsJoeie is a Registered Dietitian that has been working and growing with summerlunch+ since 2017. She loves sharing her passions for cooking and health to help kids across the GTA discover the joys of nutritious eating and gain food skills. She enjoys collaborating with the summerlunch+ team to create learning content, connecting with new partner sites and working on recipe development. Her favourite summerlunch+ recipe are the black bean brownies.
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Food Literacy Manager
Lauren is a Registered Dietitian that has worked with summerlunch+ since 2023. She loves being able to combine her passions for nutrition, cooking, content creation and working with children at summerlunch+! She enjoys designing engaging learning modules to help participants develop their food skills and nutrition knowledge! Her favourite summerlunch+ recipe is the lentil chocolate chip cookies.
Advisors and Collaborators
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Akshay is a Senior Financial Analyst by profession and loves modeling, analysing, and visualizing data. Akshay is equally passionate about food and loves making nutritious recipes (from Salads to Zero sugar cakes) for his wife and kid. He was first introduced to summerluch+ at a Community Initiative event at Manulife where he strongly felt connected to summerluch+'s mission. Akshay has since stayed connected with Susan and has been helping her with data analysis since April 2024.
Let’s have lunch!
Questions about our program or interested in a collaboration? If you know someone who could benefit from our program or if you'd like to support our cause, we'd love to hear from you!
Reach out today and let's grow great kids together.
Susan Wright
susan@summerlunchplus.com
summerlunch+ is a Project of MakeWay. Charitable Registration Number: BN 130560188 RR0001