Through his personal foundation, the Jonathan Toews Foundation, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews works to develop and support initiatives to improve children's nutrition and wellness. 

Every kid should have access to nutritious and affordable food and wellness programs. The Jonathan Toews Foundation's goals are to:

• Encourage community action that supports good nutrition and wellness programs for children to achieve their potential
• Increase access for children to have healthier choices in their schools and communities
• By thinking globally and acting locally, we want to provide healthy resources for children and their family

The Jonathan Toews Foundation kicked off the third year of its indoor agriculture education program in partnership with Green Bronx Machine and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) on Thursday, January 10, 2020. This year, the program provided 60 schools with the Tower Garden and curriculum, tripling the number of participating classrooms since inception.

Each participating school receives a Tower Garden, a state-of-the-art 9-week curriculum as well as access to Stephen Ritz, founder of Green Bronx Machine and one of the world's leading indoor agriculture educators. Developed over the course of 24 months of beta-testing and research, this curriculum aligns the art and science of growing vegetables indoors to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. CPS principals and teachers are provided sequenced and rubric-based instruction, including daily lesson plans that teach students required core academic content through growing and eating healthy food.

Over the past three years, this program has produced amazing results:

• 99% of all students now know edible food can be grown in classrooms all year long, up from 28%
• 94% of all students now know they can grow food with 90% less water and in 90% less space than traditional farming, up from 13%
• 92% of all students now know they can grow more food vertically in a 3'x3' footprint than within a whole classroom, up from 30%
• 78% of all students now know technique for most input-effective gardening, up from 21%
• 94% of all participating students want to repeat the program

You can donate directly to the Jonathan Toews Foundation by contributing to the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation and denoting "Jonathan Toews Foundation" or "JTF" in the notes section before submitting.