Families at Edmonds Community School struggle to buy food and pay rising rents
Social assistance rates have been frozen for almost a decade in B.C. while a white-hot real estate market has pushed rents through the roof. Which is why Sean Gaster, principal at Edmonds Community School in Burnaby, sometimes sees 60 children a day coming in hungry looking for breakfast. Parents, too. “It’s very difficult for some […]
Hunger still a major issue in many B.C. schools
This province has children who arrive at school each morning hungry, improperly clothed or without adequate footwear. Not just dozens or hundreds. Thousands. All they can hope for is the compassion of teachers to help them endure these miseries. To their great credit it is not unusual to find teachers and principals attempting to feed […]
A closet for students who don’t have one at home
There are some students attending Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper Secondary who own their own cars. And there are some who own only the clothes on their backs. The gulf that exists between those two groups needs no exploring. “Kids with cars? Yes. I remember seeing one kid broken down who didn’t know how to use […]
SOS saves families from hunger
Each month the SOS room in the basement of Norquay elementary offers a lifeline to as many as 14 impoverished families. The acronym stands for Support Our Students but it’s too close to the international Morse signal for immediate rescue for there to be any doubts what it’s all about. And Margaret Jorgensen, who inherited […]
Burnaby school breakfast program gets boost from group of businesswomen
In 2011, The Vancouver Sun’s Children’s Fund sent $11,000 to Edmonds Community School to pay for breakfasts for the 45 children coming to school hungry every day. “We’ve just about used up that money,” Mischa Greenwood, the school’s community coordinator, said earlier this week. The Burnaby school had only asked for $8,000 from the Adopt-a-School […]
Volunteers, bus tickets and breakfast needed in Maple Ridge
Suburban living doesn’t get much better than in Maple Ridge, says Trevor Connor, principal of Maple Ridge Secondary. And on a bright day in the midst of the tidy, well-kept homes that surround his school, it appears self-evident. But – appearances notwithstanding – not everyone here is living the suburban dream. “Because it’s such a […]
Telus, Hyatt join forces to help school: Family day at Beaconsfield part of ongoing contribution to community
Earlier this year, Lord Beaconsfield Elementary’s classroom computer system that was on the verge of collapsewas rescued by a $25,000 Telus donation to The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign. The school had asked AAS for money to buy computers to replace ones that had stopped working. This was limiting students’ ability to learn a technology-based curriculum. […]
Community comes to rescue of hungry families in Surrey
Such is the state of poverty in some North Surrey homes that a family recently had only a single onion to eat between them all weekend. “That’s all they had,” said Liane Ricou, an official with the Surrey School Board. “We know of families that don’t even have that. They’ll go all weekend without eating […]
Homeless teens often stay hidden
Homelessness among teenagers is an invisible epidemic, says Dawne Tomlinson, principal of Langley Secondary. “You will see homeless adults in Langley but you won’t see homeless teenagers because they are invisible. They wear all the right things and stuff because they are so much more vulnerable if they look homeless: vulnerable in school, vulnerable on […]
Beedie Group helps children in need, stepping forward to ‘adopt’ neighborhood school
It’s Friday and lunch day at Burnaby’s Douglas Road Elementary and there’s nothing but joy on the face of principal Mary-Ann Brown as she dishes out the macaroni and cheese to the line of waiting children each holding a plastic container and spoon. “We do this once a week and the kids just love it,” […]