Toronto's SickKids Hospital New Oreos Fundraising Campaign

Because of course they are.

SickKids hospital has never shied away from junk food fundraising and their latest campaign sees them working with food giant Mondelez to promote the sale of Oreo cookies.

Mondelez of course is thrilled and sees this partnership as,

"a first step in a long-term partnership that will “allow for even more collaborative opportunities across portfolios and brands"

The partnership also benefits Dairy Farmers of Canada who are likely running damage control following the release of a Food Guide that rightly de-emphasized milk's unique importance in our diets and removed  our prior Guide's explicit recommendations around its consumption and instead simply included dairy in the protein foods grouping.

Dairy Farmers are likely worried about the impact the Food Guide's changes will have on their lucrative school milk programs and perhaps that's what underlying their stated campaign rationale of "helping kids reach their full potential”, which no doubt will have more weight with SickKids' push.

Apparently the campaign will include, "TV, cinema, digital, social media and public relations", and there's zero doubt that industry's expectations are despite the campaigns likely huge costs, they'll enjoy a return on their investment, either by way of direct sales, or by protecting current initiatives (like school milk programs).

As to what's in it for Sick Kids, of course it's just money. No doubt too that the amount of money SickKids is likely to get by way of fundraising with cookies, will be a fraction of what will be spent on the campaign to which they're lending their name and integrity to market them.

No doubt too, if this were about altruism for the Mondelez and Dairy Farmers, they'd just cut cheques.

Dear @BowlCanada, Selling Chocolate Should Not Be A Prerequisite For A Child To Play In Your Leagues

This is not the first time someone has shared the story of a kids' sports league that requires junk food fundraising, but it may be the first time that the league's program coordinator explicitly stated that the child of a parent willing to pay a bit more instead of being stuck selling $50 of chocolate wouldn't be welcome.

I've said it before and will say it again, our food culture is broken and junk food fundraising is just one small aspect of that, and when you question social norms, no matter how broken they might be, don't be surprised when you get pushback. But damn, it's depressing.

Here is the redacted email exchange I was forwarded

Parent:

Hello,

My kids’ dad signed our child up for bowling and is telling me I have to sell half of these chocolates.

I asked for information and the lane said that Bowl Canada mandates this.

So I have a few things to ask.

I’ve noticed that General Mills is a sponsor. Do they make the chocolates and are they the party that is behind this arrangement?

Why chocolate when we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic? Especially for an organization encouraging health? There are all sorts of fundraisers. If given the chance I would gladly purchase fresh vegetables through Peak of the Market, for example.

Also, why not give parents the option of giving a donation for tax deductible purposes rather than making them buy a bunch of poor quality chocolate that is probably connected to child labour? You’d still cover the costs you are hoping for.

Bowl Canada Program Coordinator

Dear [Redacted],

We are happy to hear that your child will be registering for bowling this season! Yes, Youth Bowl Canada has one official fundraiser each year and our tried and true method of raising funds, to help keep costs down for families, is the sale of chocolates.

Every two years, Youth Bowl Canada considers proposals from many companies offering an array of products, with various levels of monetary return which benefits all levels of bowling in Canada. Chocolate companies can repeatedly offered the best deal to not only bowling, but to schools, community clubs, etc.

General Mills was a sponsor of Bowl Canada last year, however it was simply a free game of bowling offer on select food products in stores. They have not wished to quote on our fundraisers in the past.

I hope I have addressed your concerns. Please feel free to reply should you have any further questions.

Parent

Hi [Redacted].

Thanks for your quick response. My understanding is, then, that these chocolate sales are mandatory if we want our kids in bowling. Is that correct?

If not correct, if this fundraiser is optional, no big deal; I don’t have to take part in something I find morally objectionable in order for my kid to have this opportunity.

If correct, that you require these chocolate sales, I would urge Bowl Canada to reconsider this policy, for 3 reasons.

1. It is objectionable to force fundraising on families. Some people are very good at this kind of stuff. Others have anxiety or lack the connections to have people to sell to. Sometimes the families least able to support a fundraiser are the ones whose kids most need this kind of programming.

2. This does not support physical health. As I mentioned, obesity is a major issue in society. I can appreciate that you are looking for good money makers but I think non-profits should be mindful of other considerations.

3. Why not give parents the option of something else? I am not going to sell these chocolates. If I end up buying half from my kids’ dad I will end up with chocolate I don’t want in my house and maybe end up throwing it out. I will have spent what? $50 on chocolate so Bowl Canada can get $20? I’d much rather just give you the $20 profit you are looking for. Why not just give me that option rather than making me spend more money than is necessary?

4. Chocolate is ethically problematic. Most chocolate manufacturers have child labour and harsh conditions as part of the production process. This is wrong and I believe what we support with our money should not hurt other people.

So I find myself between a rock and a hard place: I love my kid in bowling, it has been great for him. But I don’t think it’s right to force me to take part in something I find morally objectionable.

Please reconsider your policy.

Bowl Canada Program Coordinator

Hi [Redacted].

Yes, chocolate sales are required for the YBC program to participate in all YBC programs and events.

I will, however forward your concerns on to those that review YBC policies for future consideration.

Regards

Ugh.

Weekly Elementary School Pizza Sales Nets Just $8.57 Per Student Per Year

Last week I gave a talk to some parents at my youngest daughter's elementary school.

The talk was about our ridiculous food environment where we are all the proverbial frogs in pots of water that have slowly been heated to a boil, where food, especially junk food, is constantly used to reward, pacify, and entertain our children as well as to fundraise for every cause.

Ironically, the day before the talk I received an email from the school's parent council extolling me to sign my daughter up for weekly pizza days. In it I was told,

"The most valuable fundraiser is Pizza Mondays. $0.50 of every order, every week goes to the [redacted]. It's a win/win/win! One less lunch for you to make, a delicious (and nutritious) slice of pizza for your child and $16.50 to the [redacted]!"

Looking past the wisdom (or lack thereof) of children been taught by their school week in and week out, from Kindergarten to Grade 7, that fast food pizza is a normal, weekly, "nutritious", meal, I couldn't help but wonder just how valuable it really was in terms of fundraising, and so I asked principal.

She told me that the school's Pizza Mondays cut raises $6,000 per year (12,000 slices served).

There are 700 students in the school.

$6,000/700 students/year = $8.57/student/year

And if Pizza Mondays are the most valuable fundraiser, then perhaps it'd be fair to assume that in total, the school raises $10,000/year in food sale initiatives. That would be $14.30 per kid per year.

Is there really no other way to raise $14.30 per kid than selling them, and normalizing, weekly (or multiple times per week) junk food?

I think there probably is, and here are 3 suggestions each of which by itself might do the job, let alone together (and these are just 3 ideas, there are so many more out there as well).

Fundscrip
Fundscrip is simple to describe. Parents buy gift cards from Fundscrip for stores they already shop at (supermarkets, gas stations, hardware stores, clothing stores, business and school supply stores, toy stores, book stores, electronic stores, restaurants etc.). The gift cards work just like regular gift cards (meaning they work just like cash) and are mailed directly to parents' homes, and the school receives 2-5% (depending on the store) of the value of the gift cards. Given the average family of 4 in Canada's weekly grocery bill runs in at a reported $220, if even only 10% of the school's parents got involved, and if they only used the cards to cover half of their grocery costs, the 3% kickback to the schools would raise $12,000. And that's just by way of groceries!

Grandparents' Day
Many schools run grandparents' days. Simply put they involve inviting all the kids' grandparents to school, putting on some sort of song and dance production, giving the proud grandparents a tour, and either charging them a nominal fee for tickets ($5), or simply soliciting donations during the event (and perhaps annually having a singular cause which then gets branded for that year's grandparents if monies raised). 700 elementary students should conservatively mean at least 1400 grandparents. If only half of them attended, and an average of $5/grandparent was raised, that would bring in $3,500.

School Parents' Goods and Services Auction
With 700 families in our child's school, there are clearly a great many different professions represented among the parents. Creating a night whereby parents can donate goods or services (with a cut to the school) is a great way to both raise money, and raise interest and awareness of the parent body's businesses. Lawyers might donate a discounted will consultations, I could donate work with one of our RDs, or with our personal trainers, artists could donate their art, restauranteurs could donate meals, etc. Done right, and certainly once established as a valuable annual event, there's no reason why this couldn't raise $3,000-$10,000.

The bottom line is that schools truly don't need to sell junk food to children to raise money as there are plenty of other means to do so. Yes, school sold junk food is convenient for parents who aren't keen on making lunches every day, but given we are literally building our children out of what we feed them, and that weekly (daily in some cases) school junk food sales teaches kids, even those who don't order them, that daily junk food is a normal, healthy part of life, taking the time to pack those lunches (or to teach our kids how to pack lunches themselves) is well worth it.

10 Easy Non-Junk Food Rewards Teachers Can Dole Out

It happens in my kids' classes too. Teachers use junk food to reward academic accomplishments, good behaviour, fundraising and other social initiatives.

I'm sure the intentions are good. Rewarding desired behaviours reinforces the behaviour. Of course it also reinforces the rewards.

Teachers teaching their students, usually their very young students, that candy and pizza are rewards for every job well done no matter how small, might not be a great lesson for kids.

Moreover, there are so many better rewards that could be metered out.

In no particular order, here are ten (some whole class, some single kid), and please feel free to share this post and list with the your children's teachers. Honestly, they care about your kids, but they may not have thought about the issue much, and they're just doing what's nowadays considered to be normal.

1. An extra period of recess
2. An in class dance party
3. Dress up (or down) days (PJs, costumes, fancy clothes, whatever)
4. Class put in charge of school PA system for the day
5. Painting a hallway or classroom mural
6. Stickers or temporary tattoos
7. Sit wherever you want for a period (teacher's chair, floor, under desk)
8. Get out of one night of homework free card
9. Phone a kid's parents to tell them how terrific their kid is
10. Scrabble/boggle/other sort of educational game competition/hour

Why Does The Boys and Girls Club Want You And Your Kids To Eat Poorly?

The short answer of course is money.

The slightly longer answer is society's normalized use of junk food to fund raise.

In the Boys and Girls Club's case, they're apparently quite comfortable taking money from fast food restaurants who, in a brilliant bit of marketing, sell packs of free kids meals in return for a donation (which presumably gets shared with The Boys and Girls Club).

Give $3 to Montana's (a fast casual BBQ restaurant chain in Canada), and you'll get 3 free kids meals.

Give $5 to Swiss Chalet (a fast casual rotisserie chicken restaurant chain in Canada) and you'll get 5 free kids meals.

As far as kids meals go, the Center for Science in the Public Interest once ran a comprehensive study of various kids meals. They determined that of the over 3,500 they analyzed, 97% were either too high in calories, sodium, or sugar (or all of the above).

Of course, the adult meals aren't any better and also provide wallops of calories, sodium, and/or sugar, and no doubt, the business model for the restaurants is that they can give away the kids meals because of course, their parents will be eating too.

Also notable is the irony found in The Boys and Girls Club's Twitter banner where they include "Healthy Snacks and Meals" in their listing of what they do.

While fundraising without junk food may be more difficult, it's certainly doable.

Yesterday morning I tweeted about a friend of mine's kid who's fundraising for her hockey team by way of selling pumpkins (and if you click through to the tweet's replies, you'll see many more examples).

There are ways to fundraise that don't involve selling junk food. Friend's kid's hockey team is fundraising by selling pumpkins!

— Yoni Freedhoff, MD (@YoniFreedhoff) September 19, 2017

Rather than enabling, permitting, and encouraging a fast food lifestyle, what organizations like The Boys and Girls Club should be doing is demonstrating leadership by ending - purposefully and vocally - the practice of junk food fundraising, and championing and promoting healthier fund raising options in its stead.

The Canadian Cancer Society Wants You To Drink Sugar And Eat At Chipotle

A few years ago I pointed out the hypocrisy of the Canadian Cancer Society encouraging people to eat Domino's pizza in the name of fundraising.

I noted that sure, fast food pizza here and there isn't going to kill you or give you cancer, but that there's little doubt that one of the major drivers of our society's struggles with diet and weight related illnesses is the normalization of fast and junky foods as regular, everyday parts of our lives.

My belief is that this normalized culture of convenience is in part encouraged by the cause-washed use of candy and junk food for fundraising - a practice which may have been inconsequential (and rare) 60 years ago, but superimposed on our health issues today, is just plain wrong (and constant). And it's especially wrong when adopted by health organizations whose cause, like that of the the Canadian Cancer Society, is itself impacted by low quality diets.

So this year's Canadian Cancer Society junk food partners are Chipotle, PepsiCo, and the Dole Food Company.

The Canadian Cancer Society's partnership with Chipotle sees them encouraging a trip to the giant fast food burrito maker in the name of 50% of a single day's sales, while their partnership with PepsiCo and Dole come from one of their flagship events - the Run For The Cure - where PepsiCo and Dole serve as the Run's, "National Official Suppliers". As such, at the finish line of the short 5km fundraising run (which of course isn't of a distance long enough to worry about any fuel or hydration needs), PepsiCo and Dole will be there to market hand out the beverages that the Run For The Cure website notes provide participants, year after year, with "delicious refreshment".

Of course they'll also provide participants with piles of sugar given that Dole Sparklers, a "real fruit beverage", pack 4 teaspoons of free sugar per can, while Real Tea's offerings can pack up to a whopping 12 per bottle depending on flavour.

It's a good thing then I guess that the Run For The Cure is on October 1st rather than September 30th given that in September the Canadian Cancer Society's fundraising effort is a much more appropriate Sugar Free September initiative

And as the Canadian Cancer Society is explicitly aware, fruit drinks and sweetened tea, are common sources of free and added sugars in our diets.

One of the other reasons why these partnerships are so unwise is the way they're utilized by the junk food partner. For instance Dole's gone ahead and leveraged their partnership for in store sales of their sugar water by using it to cause-wash their products directly.

Given that the last time around the Canadian Cancer Society reported they were incredibly proud of their partnership with Dominos, I imagine this time will be no different.

Not sure pride is the emotion I'd recommend when reflecting on their comfort with junk food fundraising.

California Public Libraries Giving In-N-Out Burgers to 4 Year Olds

I've written about child literacy and junk food before with the young reader marketing partnerships and cause-washing of McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Arby's. Today's example comes from California Public Libraries and their promotion of In-N-Out's "Cover to Cover Club"

Here are the program's details as described by the Saratoga Springs Public Library

For every 5 library books your kid reads, they'll receive a coupon good for an "achievement award".

The award?

An In-N-Out hamburger or cheeseburger (limit 3 per child apparently)

Kids today have no shortage of opportunities to eat fast food. Should public libraries be encouraging, enabling, and permitting more? I'd also love to know if this initiative actually increases library foot traffic and books read or just rewards kids who were already reading for the love of reading with fast food?

And if city run public institutions wanted to provide some incentive for young kids to read and use libraries, how difficult would it be for them to partner with city run community centres to hand out coupons for free admissions to local public pools or with the Parks Service to hand out free day use fee coupons for a nearby State park?

London Health Science Centre Says Eat Chicken Wings For Cancer

Today's installment of what seems like a never ending parade of questionable partnerships between hospitals and junk food is the eat chicken wings for cancer campaign being promoted by London Health Science Centre.

This particular campaign comes hot off the heels of the recent report in the British Medical Journal highlighting the strong evidence of obesity being a contributor to at least 11 different types of cancer.

Once again, I have to ask, are the dollars raised in these sorts of campaigns worth the promotion of lifestyles that themselves contribute to the burden of illness being seen by the very programs and providers the fundraising is meant to support?

Sudbury Hospital Says Eat Blizzard Cupcakes To Support Cardiac Programs

From the Annals of Junk Food Fundraising I bring you this gem from Sudbury's Health Sciences North Foundation. Buy a half dozen Dairy Queen Blizzard cupcakes for $15 and the hospital's cardiac programs will receive $2.

Just in case you want to take the position that you'd be buying them anyhow, looking to Health Science North Foundation's Facebook page you'll see their encouragement to buy them

"for a good cause",

that you should

"#treatyoself",

and that,

"now's your chance to eat cupcakes without guilt".

Remember too, you can't buy just one, you need to buy a half dozen, and each and every one packs 240 calories along with 5 teaspoons of sugar.

That hospitals and their Foundations are comfortably shilling half a dozen cupcakes in return for $2 isn't so much reflective of incompetence but more that junk food fundraising is so normalized that no one bothers giving it a second thought.

And it's not as if this sort of fundraising can't be done right. Also for heart month, last week my inbox saw this initiative from Roots and Canada's Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF). Buy a Roots toque for $26 and $10 will go back to the HSF. Buy a $10 bracelet and $5 goes back to the HSF.

[Thanks to RD Ashley Hurley for alerting me to the cupcake campaign]

$0.25 Per Cookie Supporting A Kids Hospital Is Marketing, Not Philanthropy

Yet another in the ugly parade of questionable hospital based junk food fundraising is this campaign being promoted by the Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.

Each cookie packs more calories than a Snickers Bar along with 7.5 teaspoons of primarily added sugar - 1.5 teaspoons more than the World Health Organizations recommended daily maximum.

While I'm not sure there are dollar values that justify a hospital encouraging the consumption of fast food and cookies in the name of fundraising, a quarter a cookie as a return is pretty difficult to defend.

But no one says boo. Because junk food fundraising is considered wholly normal.

It shouldn't be.

(And if it were really about philanthropy and not marketing, Chick-Fil-A would simply cut and send a cheque)

[Hat tip to Brian from Facebook who sent the poster my way]

Can School Based Rummage Sales Put The Boot To Junk Food Fundraising

Right now our garage is literally filled with boxes of outgrown toys and kid related paraphernalia. Our plan had been to donate it all to one charity or another, but what if it could be put to use to help fund our kids' schools?

Thanks to the forward thinking of 13 year old Belle Pan, that might be possible one day soon.

The daughter of an entrepreneur, Pan developed iRummage - an online and app based infrastructure to allow schools to host year long rummage sales where the items for sale, and their listings, come from the schools' families. What else will this app do? According to Pan,

"We're going to train 100,000 ten year old CEOs. Raise money for schools? Check. Provide business education for kids? Check. All I'm asking of you is your old couch".

Awesome!

Here's hoping iRummage finds the funding it needs to launch, and that we continue to see innovations and ideas like Pan's push school junk food, bake sales, and fast food fundraising to the curb.

Another Great Not Junk Food Fundraising Program!

Thanks to my friend and med school classmate Christine Gibson for sharing this with me.

It's called Raise a Patch and it's an Australian initiative that I adore. It's fundraising (school, sports team, whatever) by way of selling "veggie patches", herb pots, and flower gardens.

Healthy foods, beautiful flowers, and the joy of gardening? What's not to love. Hope this catches on globally.

(and if you're looking for more healthy fundraising inspiration, here's a compiled list of other Aussie programs)

A Simple Solution to Put an End to Hospital Junk Food Fundraising

So it's Slices for Smiles time again. That's the campaign that sees Canada's children's hospitals shilling $2 fast food pizzas in the name of fundraising.

As I've reported in the past, the splashy campaign, when divvied up and considered in the context of a hospital's annual budget, doesn't earn all that much. Last year for instance, Slices for Smiles saw its most successful campaign ever and was reported to have raised $50,000 per participating hospital. That $50,000 in turn pays for roughly two hours of a medium sized children's hospital's annual operating expenses (and in the case of a large one's, about 33 minutes worth).

In terms of what Slices for Smiles provides Pizza Pizza, well it provides them with a year long campaign, the ability to capitalize on the charitable goodwill of a nation to sell pizzas, to create powerful emotional branding which in turn might lead to lifelong customers, to latch onto a cause that in turn is beyond reproach, and to have hospitals further normalize the regular consumption of fast food.

And of course it's not just Slices for Smiles, but also Miracle Treat Day, Tim Horton's Smile Cookies, DQ Cake Day, McHappy Days, and then many one-of events like the one that had BC Children's Hospital Foundation selling chocolate bars.

The argument generally used to defend junk food fundraising is simple dollars. Hospitals need money and if they don't get it from junk food fundraising, where are they going to get it from?

Well I may have an answer.

It's called FundScrip.

The way Fundscrip works is simple. Organizations sell gift cards for stores people go to already (pharmacies, gas stations, supermarkets, clothing stores, coffee shops, etc.). People who purchase the gift cards use them just like cash. The organization gets a cut.

According to their webpage, if a hospital were to enroll just 500 families a year to use FundScrip to buy their annual groceries and gas the hospital would raise $171,000/yr - an amount likely far greater than any hospital's total annual junk food fundraising haul.

Given a medium sized hospital has at least 2,000 staff and sees over 70,000 patients a year, recruiting 500 families to use FundScrip in the name of ejecting junk food fundraising and/or simply in the name of fundraising seems like a very doable goal.

Moreover, if the Canada wide Children's Miracle Network, the network responsible for both Miracle Treat Day and Slices For Smiles, were to champion year-long FundScrip campaigns in their stead, I've little doubt they too could give junk food fundraising the boot and in so doing, raise more money than do their current awful offerings.

Selling illness in the name of health is an oxymoron, and doing so when there are non-junk food means to raise the same amount of, if not more money, is inexcusable.

Hoping to see leadership from hospitals (and health foundations/networks) in putting an end to junk food fundraising - who better than them to lead the charge?

[And if you want a quick sense of just how pervasive junk food fundraising is, have a peek at my modest collection of posts on same]

Guest Post: Help the Environment by Eating More Processed Food?!

Today's guest post comes from our office's fantastic RD Emily Spencer

TerraCycle is an up-cycling and recycling company that collects difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and turns the material into a variety of consumer products like cutting boards, garbage cans, and picnic tables.

Here’s the catch.

TerraCycle has made its way into schools with an aim to teach children about the environment by having them collect and recycle their processed food containers and wrappers, among other items. Don’t get me wrong; I think that teaching children about creating sustainable environments is important. The issue with this is that the school receives points from TerraCycle based on the amount of empty food packaging they send in. These points can then be redeemed as cash rewards for the school. In other words, the more processed, packaged food sent in school lunches, the better. There are even contests in schools where the child who collects the most packaging will win a prize. Wrappers and containers from Schneider’s Lunchmates, Kraft Lunchables, Koolaid Drink Pouches, and Mr. Christie Cookies are a few examples of waste accepted by TerraCycle.

While I’m all for recycling, I can’t help but think that rewarding the frequent consumption of processed, packaged food is not the right approach to help the environment…or the health of our children.

And the story isn’t over yet.

The large majority of the repurposed products made with the children’s empty food packages are covered in recycled food companies' logos (see examples here and up above). So in addition to being rewarded for eating processed food, children (and adults) can now have the pleasure of doing free advertising for the food industry by carrying around heavily branded items like tote bags and backpacks.

I wonder how long it will take until a Koolaid pencil case or Lunchable notepad ends up in a landfill anyway?

Unfortunately this is yet another clever partnership for the food industry that provides little in terms of teaching children about the environment. TerraCycle should stick with repurposing ink cartridges and laptops into useful, unbranded consumer products, not in causewashing "foods" that kids would likely be better served without.

Emily Spencer, RD, MScFN
Registered Dietitian

Emily Spencer, MScFN, RD graduated with a Master’s of Science in Food and Nutrition from Brescia University (affiliated with Western University) in 2014. Her major research project during her master’s degree was focused on evaluating a community based lifestyle and behaviour change program for adults with prediabetes. Her undergraduate BSc in Food and Nutrition was also completed at Brescia University in 2012.

As an adventurous food lover, Emily enjoys cooking and experimenting with foods from all cultures, trying just about anything – even scorpion! You never know what you’ll like until you give it a chance!

Coca-Cola Partners with Police to Hand Out Drink Coupons

Yesterday Ontario's Peel Regional Police and Coca-Cola held a joint press conference to promote their new partnership - one that will see police officers in Peel hand out coupons for Coca-Cola to drivers who haven't been drinking and driving.

Given the awareness and illegality surrounding drunk driving, the likelihood that this "partnership" will lead those who were otherwise considering driving drunk to not do so is low at best.

What that means of course is that this is a partnership that only benefits Coca-Cola who in turn receive the incredible opportunity of having a police force freely serving as respected, trustworthy, brand ambassadors.

By involving themselves in causes like this one, causes that are themselves beyond reproach, Coca-Cola secures powerful, and virtually free advertising, while accumulating public relations victories that they can use when trying to convince politicians that soda taxes are bad ideas. A great move for Coca-Cola, with pretty much nothing in it for Peel.

Unfortunately, though it was there before, the Peel Regional Police have apparently removed the video of their joint press conference with Coca-Cola.

Toronto Hospitals Rewarding Flu Shot Receiving Staff With Chocolate Bars

Post vaccination lollipops for kids may be one thing (though are clearly debatable), but do fully grown adults, adults who are physicians, nurses and other allied health professionals, really need to be rewarded, let alone with a chocolate bar, for getting a flu shot?

Toronto's University Health Network hospitals clearly think so.

As a whole, society needs to be striving to provide fewer opportunities for the consumption of junk food, not encouraging and permitting more, and who better than hospitals to be leading that charge?

Children's Hospital Colorado Sponsors 9,000lb Candy Giveaway #NotTheOnion

Children's Hospital Colorado, along with, I kid you not, Colorado Springs Pediatric Dentistry have teamed up to sponsor "Boo at the Zoo", a Halloween extension program that has the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo hosting 6 days of Halloween whereby the zoo's "trick-or-treat stations" will hand out "over 9,000lbs of candy".

Oh how I wish I could have been at one of the board meetings where a Children's Hospital and a pediatric dentistry clinic decided this was an important activity to get behind. Perhaps these arguments came up?

"Kids don't get enough candy these days, how can we help to get them more?"

or

"What could be better than candy to promote our hospital and dental clinics?"

or,

"Anyone else think Halloween's too short?"

And unless there's something I'm missing, other than brand exposure for the hospital and the dental clinic, I can't figure out a tie-in. I mean this isn't even junk food fundraising, it's just a candy giveaway!

Honestly, The Onion's got nothing on these guys.

[Thanks to Jen on Facebook for sending my way]

Breast Cancer Foundations Probably Shouldn't be Promoting Booze

Again, not The Onion.

The charity is called the Keep A Breast Foundation and they sure do like cross promotions with alcohol and junk food.

There was their "Brewbies" beer festival, their "I love boobies and pizza" partnership, their partnership with Little Black Dress Wines, and my favourite, their "Drink Pink" Cheeseburgers in Paradise partnership that saw a whole 10% of the cost of pink drinks go back to the Foundation. I bet that'd be fifty shiny cents a glass!

Clearly they see no irony in these promotions despite their own proviso,

"Please remember - More than one (1) drink each day (if you are 21, of course) increases your odds of developing breast cancer. Alcohol can increase the levels of some hormones such as estrogen and unusually high levels of estrogen increases the risk of breast cancer. We know it's not fair, but think of the consequences if you drink too much. Be responsible and drink in moderation if you do."

But beyond ironic is what's odd.

What's odd is the fact that notwithstanding what the Keep A Breast Foundation says about the safety of a drink a day, meta-analyses on alcohol and breast cancer risk identified associations at all levels of consumption.

• This massive meta-analysis of 53 epidemiological studies, including 58,515 women with breast cancer and 95,067 women without the disease found that for every 10g of alcohol consumed (less than that found in a single drink), relative risk of breast cancer rose by 7% (albeit the absolute risk rise would be quite small).
• This similarly massive UK study found the rise in relative risk of 10g of alcohol per day to be 11%.
• And this study looking at the risk of breast cancer recurrence and alcohol consumption found that drinking just 6g a day of alcohol increased recurrence risk.

But hey, $0.50 per glass!

Ugh.

[Thanks to Erica Berman for sending my way]

Alberta Health Services Says, "Eat A Cookie For a Good Cause"

The Calgary Health Trust is the official fundraising arm of Alberta Health Services, and they want you to eat cookies, specifically Tim Horton's cookies, and more specifically their annual Smile campaign's cookies where $1 buys you a cookie and the proceeds go to charity.

According to the information provided by Calgary Health Trust, nationally, since its inception in 1996, Tim Horton's Smile Cookie campaign has raised $3.6 million. That's $189,473 raised annually (though no doubt it's been a growing campaign).

Take that number and divide by the 345 charities supported by the event and you get an average of $519 per charity per year.

Now that said, bigger cities like Calgary are able to generate more money for their local charities because there are both more people and more Tim Horton's locations, and an email sent out by Alberta Health Services' South Health Campus hospital encouraging its health care professionals to buy and promote the sale of cookies, reports that since 2010 in Calgary the Smile Cookie campaign has raised $813,000.

That's $135,500 per year. Sure sounds like a lot, but with South Health Campus' annual operating budget of $345,000,000, the cookie fundraiser covers less than 4 hours a year of the hospital's annual costs. And there are 9 other hospitals in Calgary.

So is that worth it? For Tim Horton's it sure is. It buys them incredible PR, a cause beyond reproach, brand loyalty, a ridiculous and invaluable amount of social media advertising, and a hefty tax deduction that undoubtedly more than covers the cost of the cookies' flour and sugar. It also supports the concept of junk food fundraising - a concept integral to Tim Horton's outright purchase of kid sport in this country.

Sure, it would require more work for Alberta Health Services to raise an additional $135,500 per year than it does to partner with Tim Horton's to sell cookies - that they choose not to make that effort is a failure of both vision and leadership.

The Canadian Olympic Committee Wants You To Eat Lots of Chocolate Bars

Thanks to Ottawa Fit Club for sending this my way.

It's Team Canada, Canada's official Olympic team, shilling for Cadbury with a contest sponsored by The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) for a year's supply of Caramilk bars.

And if you, like me, are scratching your head and asking yourself "WTF, why would the Canadian Olympic Committee be sponsoring a contest for a year's supply of chocolate bars?", the answer is either money or stupidity

Or both.

And if the COC is reading this, let me remind you of how you bill yourselves,

"The COC is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of marketing and education. We work to promote sport as a positive and powerful force for all Canadians. In so doing, the COC will help ensure that sport continues to contribute to Canadians’ physical, social and moral development from coast to coast to coast."

I would love to hear how a year's supply of Caramilk bars fit into that mandate.