Employees at Pattison Media and volunteers at the Lethbridge Food Bank teamed up for the Brown Bag Lunch Day on Sept. 18, 2025. (Photo: Pattison Media)

By David Opinko

Brown Bag Lunch Day raises $65,000 for Lethbridge Food Bank

Sep 19, 2025 | 9:36 AM

Pattison Media and the Lethbridge Food Bank teamed up this week for an incredibly successful fundraiser.

Our on-air hosts at WILD 95.5 FM and All Hits B 93.3 FM spent the day on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, collecting donations outside of The Kitchen Centre and Lealta Building Supplies.

A total of $65,000 was raised, which included an anonymous donation of $50,000.

Valerie Lazicki, executive director of the Lethbridge Food Bank, says it was great to see such a strong level of support from the community for their Mindful Munchies school lunch program.

WILD 95 host Chad Benson adds that he was impressed by how many people and businesses came out to make donations of all sizes.

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“There are some incredibly generous people here in southern Alberta who care so much about our kids and our community,” says Benson.

Mindful Munchies is a program that provides healthy lunches for around 600 school-aged children.

During the 2023-24 school year, over 105,000 meals were given out.

Lazicki says children need good nutrition in order to do well in school.

“We make sure that our lunches are nutritionally sound and that there is enough in them to make sure that students who need that as their last meal of the day, that it’s sufficient to give them the nutrition and the balance that’ll carry them through the rest of their day,” says Lazicki.

For Benson, this was a very personal cause that he wholeheartedly supported.

“As a dad myself, just the thought of my kid not being able to succeed because he’s hungry or not feeling well because he’s not getting a well-rounded meal every day just hits really hard,” says Benson. “Seeing that over 600 kids in our community are not being able to bring a lunch just really struck a chord.”

Parents can sign their children up for the Mindful Munchies school lunch program by contacting their school.

Although the Brown Bag Lunch Day has wrapped up, donations can still be made to the food bank at LethbridgeFoodBank.ca