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Sedins ask others to join them in helping schoolchildren
When the doors to the Strathcona Community Centre on Keefer Street were opened one day last week for breakfast there was less interest in the boiled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches...
2025/2026
Families only able to survive with help from schools
They are also being helped by Surrey school district’s Wraparound team. This is an account of two single mothers, one living on social assistance, the other with a minimum-wage job,...
2025/2026
Fort St. James secondary needs help for its vulnerable kids
Hunger among students is discernible on Monday mornings when some report they haven’t eaten in days. The northern B.C. community of Fort St. James, population 5,000, seems to be in...
2025/2026
Providing support, safety and role models
Surrey’s Wraparound team is a gang violence prevention unit with the city’s safe schools department Fadi Toma was nine years old when the war in Iraq killed his father and...
2025/2026
‘If you can do something, I would ask you to contribute’
Since 2011, the Adopt-A-School program’s largest single donor has been the Lohn Foundation, and its principal Jack Kowarsky. Ground zero for The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program is Admiral Seymour Elementary...
2025/2026
Hunger just one of the obstacles to overcome
As an alternative school, Fraserview Learning Centre’s students are among the most at-risk and vulnerable in the community. Many of the 150 students attending the Fraserview Learning Centre in Mission...
2025/2026
The only solution is to send food home with students
‘We understand that (some) students often leave school for the day wondering when their next meal will be’ As principal of Prince George Secondary, with its 1,500 students drawn from...
2025/2026
‘All the weight and problems of the world’ on these B.C. kids
Many Connex Secondary students are essentially homeless, living in unsafe conditions, and there is a risk of being preyed upon by predators When child and youth care worker Alex Marin...
2025/2026
Making sure to get children to school every day
Government help is gone as the $20 million affordability fund that was available to schools across the province was cancelled just before school began in September. Last year, 20 to...
2025/2026
Supports contribute to breaking cycles of poverty and trauma
‘Providing gift cards, food and emergency support to children and families is a meaningful and strategic way to promote equity, wellbeing and educational success’ — David Delorme, district principal for...
2025/2026
Seeing firsthand the needs of kids in B.C. schools
Former CTV journalist and news anchor Renu Bakshi went to see for herself how Sun’s Children’s Fund was helping a school in Nanaimo Six years ago, former CTV journalist and...
2025/2026
Surrey school of 84 languages needs your help for struggling families
“It’s so incredible for someone like me who has been in Surrey for 31 years to be in a building as diverse as this,” said principal Marti Player. When it...
2025/2026
Yale secondary needs help after losing provincial funding
Since 2011, the AAS has sent $15.1 million to schools across the province to help impoverished students thanks to generous donations from Vancouver Sun readers. The B.C. government’s decision to...
2025/2026
Increasing numbers of parents seek help from their child’s school
The Vancouver Sun’s Children’s Fund, which administers the Adopt-A-School campaign, has sent $15.1 million to schools since 2011 to set up breakfast and lunch programs for impoverished children. Manjit Nahal,...
2025/2026
Annual Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund campaign gets underway for another year
Adopt-A-School began in 2011 and has since directed $15.1 million to feed, clothe and provide comfort to children arriving at school in distress Today the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund launches...
2025/2026
Funding has dried up to help needy and hungry students in Abbotsford
“They come in with nothing,” says a school youth worker in Abbotsford. “So, I’ve been bringing stuff from home.” B.C.’s decision to halt its $20-million student and family affordability fund...
2025/2026
Help us help schools feed children
Just last year the federal government launched its National School Food Program promising to spend $1 billion over five years. Canada is a late arrival to the concept of feeding...
2025/2026
Struggle to feed, clothe students worsens for B.C. schools
Adopt-A-School is launching its 2025 campaign even as schools deal with more students in need Since The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund launched its Adopt-A-School program in 2011, more than $15.1...
2025/2026
Please help us fill needy kids’ stomaches
Since AAS began in 2011, it has provided millions of free meals for children who would not otherwise have been fed. Over the past year, the Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign...
2025/2026
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
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