TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Oct. 12, 2012) - More than 20,000 children across 42 countries will take part in Save the Children's Race for Survival, a global relay race to raise awareness on the urgent need to tackle child malnutrition. Children from Afghanistan to Canada, Zambia to Brazil will run on October 16th, coinciding with World Food Day, to bring attention to this underlying cause of a third of all child deaths, with 2.3 million dying in 2011 alone. The children around the world have invited politicians and celebrities to the event so they can highlight the importance of ending child malnutrition.

In Canada teams will be running in Calgary, Toronto and Lac Seul (northern Ontario). In Toronto, the two teams participating in this year's event: Lawfield Elementary (Hamilton) and Samuel Hearne (Toronto).

Before the race, chef and television host Roger Mooking from Food Network's Everyday Exotic will speak to the kids about his recent trip with Save the Children to Bangladesh where he saw health and nutrition programs up close. He will share what he and his family are doing to help put an end to hunger by supporting Save the Children's Extra Plate campaign (www.theextraplate.ca).

Date and Start Times

Save the Children in collaboration with Google+ will also host a 12-hour 'Great Debate' on child survival on the Google+ hangout platform. A total of 30 panelists from 15 countries, including celebrities, politicians, civil society actors and children, will discuss ways to avoid millions of preventable child deaths. Join the Save the Children/Google+ 'Great Debate': www.raceforsurvival.net.

For more information about the Bangladesh trip visit: http://www.savethechildren.ca/page.aspx?pid=938 or http://www.facebook.com/everyonecanada?fref=ts.

To follow the schools in the world participating in this race, please visit: www.competitioncentre.net/map.