Background
Kennedy is one of six children born to Jack and Caroline Kennedy (née Shemanski). Kennedy's father, descendant from Scottish ancestry originating in Cape Breton Island and the Ottawa Valley, ran a gas supply business in The Pas, Manitoba, eventually becoming that town's mayor. His mother's ancestry was Ukrainian, and her family lived in Canada's Prairie region. At age 14, Kennedy moved to Winnipeg to attended St. John's-Ravenscourt School on a hockey scholarship. After high school, he attended Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, also on a hockey scholarship. When Trent's hockey program was cancelled, Kennedy switched education institutions and attended the University of Alberta to continue his undergraduate studies, but left in his fourth year, without completing his degree. He then worked as a historical researcher for the Government of Alberta in the early 1980s. He began his social activism career when he directed the volunteer program at an Edmonton Food Bank in 1983.
After moving to Ontario, Kennedy was the executive director of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank from 1986 to 1996. The food bank distributed $30 million worth of food each year without government funding; 150,000 people are estimated to have used its services every month. Kennedy was named in Toronto Life Magazine's list of fifty influential people in 1992, and was named newsmaker of the year by the Toronto Star in 1993. Kennedy was also given an honourable mention in the Financial Post Magazine's C.E.O. awards in 1995.
Kennedy is married to Jeanette Arsenault-Kennedy, a day care professional and Acadian (Francophone) from Prince Edward Island. They have two children, daughter Théria and son John-Julien.
Read more about this topic: Gerard Kennedy
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