All Stories
Demand for charity and help growing every year
“I don’t want to deny any kid. Being the person on the front line who has to say no to their faces is heartbreaking.” Tammy Mojtahedpour has been the child...
2024/2025
A little help can make a huge difference
So many students live with hunger, financial insecurity or unstable housing conditions COURTENAY — Poor attendance is the most main reason many impoverished students fail to graduate, says Karma Taiji,...
2024/2025
Children’s needs come from all classes of families
For parents with little food money, a trip to the supermarket is mostly window-shopping — the aisles and fridges packed with food they would like to buy but can’t afford....
2024/2025
Getting schoolkids access to lunch in a dignified way
At Nootka Elementary, a Vancouver school of almost 400 students, a number of whom come from outside its catchment area, roughly a quarter need help with food. Nootka Elementary is...
2024/2025
Vancouver’s Eric Hamber secondary school needs help to restart breakfast program
Teacher says student coming to school without breakfast lethargic, lacked motivation to learn For two years, Matthew Vatta ran a-breakfast-on-a-shoestring program for his students at Vancouver’s Eric Hamber secondary. The...
2024/2025
‘Food, warmth, love’ is the mantra at Yale Secondary
“The way the economy’s gone, you’ll have a family of five and a mother and they don’t have anything. They don’t have coats, proper shoes, food … nothing.” Cameron Smith’s...
2024/2025
Feeding, clothing students is constant concern for Nanaimo principal
Georgia Avenue Community School is asking The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program for $10,000 to feed, clothe and provide necessities for students and families who will otherwise go without. NANAIMO —...
2024/2025
Students’ struggles prompt additional $25,000 donation from Vancouver lawyer
Vancouver lawyer Jack Kowarsky, a trustee of the Lohn Foundation, said he was increasing his support for Adopt-A-School after reading the articles The Lohn Foundation, a longtime donor to the...
2024/2025
Nelson school in need of winter clothes, food hampers
This year has seen a spike in the numbers of children arriving hungry. NELSON — Blewett Elementary is built on a mountain in a rural community of the same name...
2024/2025
Vancouver developer commits nearly $200,000 to feed schoolkids
PCI Developments has been supporting The Sun’s charitable campaign for a decade. Tim Grant, the president of PCI Developments, said the shock of learning children were going to school hungry...
2024/2025
Clothing, food always in need for young students
École Squamish Elementary principal shops for enough food for those who arrive at school hungry, roughly a quarter of her 400 students. Every week, Sarah Hain, the principal at École...
2024/2025
Students in B.C.’s alternate school system among most in need
Applications to Adopt-A-School from a number of alternate schools around the province total more than $100,000 Applications from schools seeking help from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign point to an...
2024/2025
School struggles to feed kids as donations dwindle
‘Since we started our intensive breakfast program last year, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of students wanting to come to school in the morning.’ With more students...
2024/2025
Breakfast program key to reducing absenteeism
‘Once you get their bellies full, their physical and mental well being is better and their educational outcomes are better.’ Gurpaul Sohal, principal of Gladstone Secondary in East Vancouver, owes...
2024/2025
Feeding kids in the school of hard knocks
Outreach staff of the Vancouver Alternate Secondary School spend their days connecting to street kids … on the streets. Some days the staff of the Vancouver Alternate Secondary School will...
2024/2025
Strathcona students among the most needy of all
Each day, staff prepare and provide as many as 270 grab-and-go breakfasts for students of Lord Strathcona Elementary. It’s 8:30 a.m. and some of the children coming into the Strathcona...
2024/2025
Kwalikum secondary needs help providing for basics
“The cost of necessities are often unattainable for some families and we want to help. This child needs glasses. It’s not a whim.” QUALICUM BEACH — This community with its...
2024/2025
David McCann keeps on giving to help keep kids fed
Despite doctor’s order to slow down, 78-year-old on a roller-coaster ride of helping out. David McCann does have a paying job — he’s the general manager of Creekhouse Industries on...
2024/2025
Surrey’s Safe School Wraparound program comes full circle for woman who credits former mentor
The Wraparound program is seeking $25,000 in emergency funds from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign to provide assistance to youth in crisis. At age 12, she ran away from home...
2024/2025
Thousands of children helped by Attendance Matters program
This year, Surrey has asked The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund board, which administers Adopt-A-School, for $100,000 to provide food for Attendance Matters. Vancouver lawyer Jack Kowarsky’s decade of support for...
2024/2025
Funds help immigrant and refugee students learn
Since arriving as a refugee, Divyesh Gadhia has been driven to give back It’s an understatement to say Divyesh Gadhia has been a success in business. As president of Atiga...
2024/2025
Riverdale Elementary’s food program has doubled in two years
There are 48 different languages spoken by children in Surrey’s Riverdale Elementary School. That’s 48 different ways to say “hungry”. When Rachel Ladd became principal of Riverdale Elementary in Surrey...
2024/2025
Wraparound program helps at-risk youth
For any reasonable person what the articulate 17-year-old describes so matter of factly sitting on a park bench in a quiet part of Surrey is a nightmare. She left home...
2024/2025
Food insecurity growing for schoolkids, even on Galiano Island
The school needs $4,000 in order to provide some students with a stable source of food and warm clothing GALIANO ISLAND — To describe this island as beautiful borders on...
2024/2025
Needs of hungry kids are daunting and we need your help
Even before this year’s Adopt-a-School program had launched, we’d received a record numbers of applications from schools seeking financial help to alleviate the suffering of these children — arriving at...
2024/2025
Families in ‘a constant state of grieving’ from community’s high death rate
Tragedies from COVID, drug overdoses, suicide, old age, car accidents, organ failure, cold, exposure inevitably show up in schools. FORT ST. JAMES — The last few years have not...
2023/2024
When kids are hungry, you step up, says longtime contributor
“When you know there are kids who are hungry and need to be fed — what else can you do?” — David McCann Among the donors who support the Vancouver...
2023/2024
Nelson school’s grocery program a lifeline for children and parents
$7,000 from AAS would provide hot lunch subsidies, breakfast and snack program for children and funds for the family grocery support program. It’s a disturbing sign of the times...
2023/2024
Surrey’s Safe Schools WRAP program needs your help to assist others
Safe Schools is designed to intervene and prevent students — many of them impoverished — from being targeted and exploited by criminal gangs. She wept without a sound, just...
2023/2024
Nelson school grapples with big city problems
Too many of school’s students are homeless and hungry NELSON — There was a time when many of the issues afflicting residents here would more likely have been expected in...
2023/2024
Readers give generously to tackle youth hunger
Vancouver lawyer Jack Kowarsky knows what it’s like to be hungry and deprived. So, he’s given $650,000 to Adopt-A-School since 2014. It is not unusual for teachers to describe children...
2023/2024
Non-verbal kids can ‘sing their hearts out’
“They have difficulty with words, but when we bring in a music therapist, they sing their hearts out. It’s a form of communication for them.” There is no lack...
2023/2024
Principal reports a rise in desperation among students
Too many families cannot afford food, housing At one time education was only about equipping students with the knowledge needed to face the world as adults. That was a...
2023/2024
Tight-knit village takes care of its own, but needs a bit of help
Similar to many other rural B.C. communities, families are migrating here in the hopes of finding some relief from the high cost of living — particularly the price of rent....
2023/2024
Needs are extreme at several Surrey schools
Students’ needs are extreme in Surrey, where classrooms are growing rapidly. It was a cold morning in Surrey, the temperature a few degrees above freezing. But out in the...
2023/2024
East Van school sees dramatic jump in students seeking food, clothing
Teacher covering some expenses out of her own pocket. A year ago, as many as 40 students a day in need of food could be found visiting a small...
2023/2024
Breakfast program cancelled in face of growing demand, lack of funding
Isolated Crawford Bay school faces challenges with resiliency. It’s unlikely that most British Columbians could point a finger at this tiny village of 350 residents on a map. It sits...
2023/2024
Schools in remote towns face additional support challenges
Added burden to some families who don’t have their own vehicles or who find the cost of gas for a round trip of 140 kilometres to a supermarket difficult to...
2023/2024
Wealthy neighbourhoods don’t protect schoolkids from poverty
This year’s campaign has received 204 applications — mostly from schools — seeking financial help so they can care for impoverished children arriving at school hungry or without proper winter...
2023/2024
Schools becoming links to community resources for students
Student population needs a great deal of help, both while they are at school and also while they are not. Families relying on a minimum wage job of $16.75 an...
2023/2024
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