Storytelling for an essential cause: TELUS Days of Giving inspires action with "Everybody’s Child: Feeding Community Youth"
Posted on July 21, 2025
At STORYHIVE, we're passionate about the power of storytelling, and there's something especially meaningful about sharing STORYHIVE projects with TELUS team members when the story speaks to a vital cause.
On May 29, the Local Content team celebrated the 20th Anniversary of TELUS Days of Giving with Feeding Community Youth, a film screening and donation drive event. Across six in-person events across Canada and online globally, over 300 TELUS team members came together and contributed donations to the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation, plus food items to our school snack drive for local food banks.
ICYMI: TELUS Days of Giving is our signature global volunteer movement, bringing the TELUS family together to volunteer and give back in support of our local communities. And the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation® is an independent registered charity that supports the well-being of youth who face obstacles to reaching their full potential. Who knew we worked alongside such incredible teams doing such impactful work in the community? Now, you do!
At the event, we screened the TELUS STORYHIVE documentary Everybody's Child: Feeding Community Youth. Produced by Fatima Da Silva, the film profiles Nourish Cowichan, an organization providing school meals in the Cowichan Valley in B.C. TELUS team members were captivated and inspired as we learned more about the important work of school food programs across Canada.
Even more, we were delighted to hear from Da Silva (who is the executive director of Nourish Cowichan) and Stephanie Franco, Head of operations, governance and marketing for TELUS Friendly Future Foundation, in a post-screening conversation. Hosted by Jennifer Dolynchuk from the STORYHIVE team, the discussion allowed us to dig deeper on food insecurity.
We touched on the current funding landscape for school food programs, the pivotal role of community organizations and advocates as partners in this work and the drive behind the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation's focused mission of supporting the well-being of youth who face obstacles.
Here are five of our favourite takeaways from the conversation:
Da Silva’s insight on following your passion: “Whatever it is that you decide to do that's your passion, always consider two things: One, is it really needed? The only reason that's not going to work, is it's not needed or you're doing it the wrong way. So: if it is really needed, then you just have to find a different way of doing things.”
Knowing the value and necessity of her work, it was powerful to realize that everyone faces setbacks. Fatima shared her approach of reframing to combat her fear of failure and just get started. She sees these “failures” instead as opportunities to learn, and move on more informed for the next step.
2) Needs for school food programs aren’t matching up with the funding.
Though the Canadian Government has recently made a new pledge of $1billion dollars over five years to national school food programs, Fatima provided critical insight into the reality of the numbers: “It is important for people to know that we still look at multiple sources of funding to be able to do the program. It’s a total of over 3,000 students we're feeding right now, so our budget actually is going to be around $1.61 million for this year [...] That's not the funding we're getting from the government. It just doesn't match up.”
3) Franco hitting home the importance of sharing stories: “I think that it's so special when you share your story, because it brings everybody's heart with you to take action and help.”
Franco spoke to the power of storytelling to drive action within the communities she works in, and how support doesn’t just have to be funds—it can also look like volunteer help, or sharing stories, to inspire more support. As Stephanie put it, “Every act of giving can inspire another one.”
4) Da Silva on her community’s role in her work: “Getting community involvement is so important, because it is where we work, and they should have a say, in detail, on the next step.”
When reflecting on where Nourish is headed in the future, it was inspiring to hear Da Silva’s considerations on setting goals and being open to change and input from others. Da Silva knows how powerful it is to allow the community to inform the next step of where her organization needs to be.
5) Da Silva on meeting community needs: “We never say no to any school or child. That means we need to be raising the funds.”
Da Silva gave us insight into her policy of not letting her budget dictate how she can impact her community, but instead listening to the need and seeking a way to make it happen. It’s a bold, ambitious position, especially when restrictions are so real in this work. Despite all that, her drive persists and is a powerful testament to how she pushes back against the boxes and confinements that could hold her back from exploring the possibilities of her work.
Thank you to Fatima and Stephanie for taking part in this moving, relatable, and insightful conversation!
Learn more about Da Silva and Nourish Cowichan. Watch Everybody’s Child: Feeding Community Youth now on TELUS Optik TV Video on Demand channel 9, Stream+ and STORYHIVE’s YouTube channel.