Adopt-a-School: Brechin Elementary in Nanaimo needs help supporting students with basic needs
Adopt-A-School: Inner-city school in Nanaimo needs help supporting students with basic needs Privation is the reason a recent University of B.C. study found 55 per cent of kindergarten kids in Brechin Elementary were educationally vulnerable. It doesn’t take academic studies and statistics to prove what principal Kim Hart sees every day — that when it […]
Adopt-a-School: Holly Elementary Emergency Fund
It would be an exaggeration to say Shauna Milne and her two sons are living in Surrey. Existing would be nearer the truth. Sitting in the principal’s office of Holly Elementary, the single mom explains with admirable stoicism the difference between living and living in poverty. “Do we have enough to eat? No. My kids […]
Adopt-a-School: ELL Welcome Centre Bridge Program
When refugees arrive in Surrey two pieces of information are indispensable: Directions to the nearest food bank and how to find their way to the ELL Welcome Centre on King George Boulevard. The food bank’s importance is obvious for people existing on government assistance that won’t keep them adequately fed, clothed and housed. But the […]
Adopt-a-School: Bridgeview – Needs often go beyond food
Surrey principal Diana Ellis doesn’t cry very often at work, but she shed tears the day she found help for seven-year-old Anisa. Anisa is autistic, non-verbal, and was coming to school in agony from a mouth full of rotten teeth. “When I was told Adopt-A-School would help us I just cried, her mom cried. We […]
Adopt-a-School: Greater Heights Learning Academy Lunches
Greater Heights Learning Academy teaches special needs students from 13 municipalities in the Lower Mainland, arriving from as far away as Abbotsford and West Vancouver. The spectre of childhood hunger can be found in all corners of this province, including an independent school in Coquitlam where tuition fees range from $16,000 to $18,000 a year. […]
Adopt-A-School: Some North Delta Secondary students arrive hungry and with no lunch
Principal Aaron Akune can’t do anything to alleviate the poverty found beyond the boundaries of North Delta Secondary, but he can certainly try when he finds it on school property. His school of 1,100 students on 82nd Ave. and 114th St. is in the middle of an area where the contrast between financially comfortable and […]
Adopt-A-School campaign to feed hungry children launches
Today marks the ninth year that The Vancouver Sun will be appealing to our readers for help in alleviating one of the most serious social problems of the day — the spectre of children arriving at school in need of food. It’s not just hundreds of children, it’s thousands — possibly tens of thousands — […]
Adopt-A-School campaign raises record funds for B.C. kids
This year’s Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign resulted in a record $923,774 being sent to 129 schools across the province…..more
Number of hungry kids triples this year at Nanaimo secondary school
“The north end of Nanaimo used to be an affluent area but that’s changed a bit. We see a lot of families moving in here from Vancouver and the mainland because they can’t survive there. A year ago staff at Dover Bay Secondary were relying on a food bank for supplies to feed breakfast to […]
Eastside school needs funds to help feed kids
Sometimes it’s the parents who admit they aren’t keeping a safe distance from hunger. But mostly it’s the children who tell the tale, says Vanessa Mani, the Enhanced Services worker at Lord Selkirk Elementary in East Vancouver. “I have to deal with parents in tears,” said Mani. ”But the children will say things like: ‘Miss […]