The contest is run by Cargill and is hosted on togetherwethrive.ca. Cargill is giving away six $25,000 grants to celebrate its 150th anniversary. The number of votes a project receives is one of the ways Cargill determines who wins the grants.

 

Food for Thought coordinator Gail Welburn says it's a wonderful opportunity and she's pleased to have been approached by the local Cargill group.

 

She says 665 students were registered for the past winter's Food for Thought hot lunch program, with an average of 500 to 550 per meal.

 

The program spent $49,353 on 37 meals, which is five less meals than usual.

 

On top of those costs, Welburn says the public health inspector has deemed their dish-washing station inadequate.

 

"We need to upgrade. There's no where to really drain our stuff off. We're creating makeshift dry stations in our kitchen, which can be a little bit crazy when we've got a lot of activity going on there."