A familiar friendly face is back

The annual Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign kicked off Monday with 100 per cent of the proceeds supporting local charities. It runs Sept. 19-25.

In Sudbury, proceeds will support health care improvements, the food bank and the annual CTV Lions Children's Christmas Telethon.

Tim Hortons's annual smile cookie campaign benefitting three local charities launched Monday at the location on Lasalle Boulevard and Barrydowne Road in Sudbury. Sept. 19/22 (Alana Everson/CTV Northern Ontario)

Those involved hope this year will be another record-breaking year.

"It's really good. Every shift competes with the other to see who can make more, sell more, it makes it a really fun time," said Marian McKenzie, a Sudbury area Tim Hortons franchisee.

"And guests come in and they are always ready to buy them. Who wouldn't want to smile and give a smile?"

Of the $1 that is collected for each cookie, the total amount goes to the three local charities.

At Sudbury's hospital, Health Sciences North, that includes improving patient care and equipment.

"A hospital is a very expensive machine to run and as a regional healthcare centre we also care from patients from a geographical area that covers almost 600,000 people," said Kristofer Cacciotti, a community engagement and events specialist with the HSN Foundation.

The proceeds from smile cookies will also help feed the hungry.

"The need right now is just so incredible it almost flabbergasts the mind. Every month, you keep thinking 'it can't be any more people needing the food bank than what we are already serving,' but it still goes up. We are getting 25 per cent increases on the previous month increases," said Dan Xilon, the executive director of the Sudbury Food Bank.

The CTV Lion's Children's Christmas telethon also receives money raised through the sale of smiles cookies. Last year, it helped several thousand families.

"We have over 18,000 toys that went out. That's from Thessalon, Ont., all the way to Onaping Falls, and to Markstay and Noelville, French River. Just a huge area the telethon covers every year," said Sam Khoury, the chairperson of the CTV Lions Children's Christmas Telethon.

Tim Hortons restaurant owners in the Sudbury area said the community supported the smile cookie campaign last year in record numbers raising $153,000, which was split among the three local charities. 

The smile cookie campaign is running at Tim Hortons locations across Canada.