For Surrey principal, school breakfast program is personal
Linda Chau, principal of Surrey’s Mary Jane Shannon Elementary, was two years old in 1980 when her family — boat people who had fled Vietnam — were admitted to Canada after spending 18 months as refugees in Hong Kong. Every weekday morning, Linda Chau, principal of Surrey’s Mary Jane Shannon Elementary, does a sweep of […]
Project CHEF transfers its resources to Adopt-a-School
The funds were transferred with the stipulation the amount not be disclosed. But it was a substantial donation. It was the most successful culinary program ever offered in the Vancouver school system — a travelling kitchen of chefs who would encamp in an elementary school and teach families how to cook and what to […]
Pandemic job losses at home sending kids to school hungry
For the past few years, a make-shift ensemble of parent volunteers, the Salvation Army and the local food bank have been trying to address hunger among some of the children attending Maple Ridge’s Blue Mountain Elementary. But this year, the dynamic has shifted, with the number of children in need of food growing dramatically while […]
Removing stigma key to feeding starving kids
HAGENSBORG — There are three exits to the outside world from this community in the Bella Coola Valley: ferry, light aircraft, or a five-hour trip along an occasionally paved logging road listed as one of the most dangerous stretches of highway — if that’s the proper word — in the province. “I know people have […]
Surrey WRAP program looks out for at-risk kids
The program is seeking $10,000 from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign as WRAP doesn’t have discretionary funds to help with emergencies. On Dec. 1, Jon Ross’ plate was full: a family of four had just been evicted — two teenagers, a 10-year-old, and a single mother. “The kids were making too much noise. Now they’re […]
Teacher feeding hungry kids at her own expense
Bonnie Wendt describes the educational benefits of feeding impoverished and hungry students. For those with sufficient income, tonight is the traditional time for gifting. But for Bonnie Wendt, giving is a year-long endeavour. Most mornings, she arrives at Killarney Secondary in East Vancouver carrying something she has cooked, bought or removed from her home. It […]
Proper clothing needed to help schoolkids through winter
Students often coming to school hungry and ill-prepared for the winter weather. The impoverished teenagers Randy Horton cares for in the Sunrise Alternative program at Vancouver’s Templeton Secondary could use more food during the day and proper clothes to get them through the winter. “Food availability at home? It’s extremely low. A lot of them […]
London Drugs delivers Christmas gifts to needy students
This year, a record number of schools from all areas of the province are asking for help to feed and clothe students, with requests to The Vancouver Sun totalling almost $2 million. Four Lower Mainland schools received hundreds of gifts from London Drugs this week for distribution among students and families in need as part […]
Vancouver lawyer has sent $450,000 to needy children since 2014
It is unlikely there is anyone with a greater understanding of what it feels like to be hungry to the point of starvation, or to be in need of the help of strangers than Vancouver lawyer Jack Kowarsky. He is now 82 years old, but in 1945, he was a six-year-old miracle — one of […]
Wildfires caused additional pressure on hungry kids
The Vernon school district is asking The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program for $8,500 so it can continue to provide lunch for 206 children daily. For schools in Vernon it was hard enough dealing with the effects of the pandemic and the precipitous rise in the number of families falling into poverty as jobs vanished. Then […]