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 hour are struggling to put a roof over their heads and sufficient food on the table, says Keith Axelson, principal of Parkside Secondary in Terrace. […]
Warm breakfast an integral part of Attendance Matters program
Forsyth Elementary’s enrolment has rapidly expanded in three years when principal had 315 children under her care. Now she has 440, many of them newcomers to Canada. The possible loss of its breakfast program is not something Kam Grewal, principal of Forsyth Elementary in North Surrey, wants to consider. “If it wasn’t available? I don’t […]
Abbotsford school seeks to revive breakfast program
About half of Abbotsford Middle School’s 720 students could be considered vulnerable Abbotsford Middle School has 720 students, ages 11 to 13, of which half could be considered vulnerable, says vice principal Chayne den Ouden. Given the term “vulnerable” covers such a wide range of issues afflicting children, it’s no surprise the school district puts […]
School finds feeding kids essential in shadows of Vancouver highrises
Being hungry is a terrible recipe for learning The tipping point came two years ago when the number of hungry students arriving at King George secondary, deep in the heart of Vancouver’s West End, could no longer be ignored. The school on Barclay Street, not far from Stanley Park, sits in the most-crowded urban landscape […]
Helping schoolkids requires careful approach to support
“There’s a lot of shame around needing support, so you have to be careful how you navigate and reach out.” “I never knew I was poor until the school told me so…” That brief sentence always springs to mind when Aimee Boyer, principal of Surrey’s M.B. Sanford Elementary, is considering how best to help an […]
Clothes, as well as food, are a priority for schoolkids
After a summer of almost unbroken sunshine, the rain and bad weather is causing problems for families who do not have the means to buy proper clothes for the winter. NANAIMO — The food bins sent out to every classroom at Brechin Elementary each morning always come back empty on Mondays. A clear indication that […]
Vancouver Sun’s annual Adopt-a-School campaign begins today
Charitable giving: Since 2011, about $12 million has been raised so that teachers can buy food for hungry children, clothe them, or provide whatever necessities they need to ensure their wellbeing. Today is the start of the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund annual Adopt-A-School campaign, when this newsroom asks our readers to consider the plight of […]
Alumni like Peter Young make Christmas possible for many Downtown Eastside families
Since 1999, Lord Strathcona and Britannia Secondary have received more than $800,000 from the Hearts of Gold Foundation. Scattered throughout Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside tonight are families whose Christmas would be anything but merry without the efforts of Jason Eng, principal of Lord Strathcona elementary and generous donors including a former student who never forgot where […]
New Westminster school district needs help serving lunches to hungry kids
“We have two boys who never complain but they are sure thankful when they can get meatballs, mashed potatoes and carrots.” A year ago the New Westminster school district was serving an average of 162 subsidized hot lunches a day to children in 12 schools who were coming to school hungry with little or no […]
Prospect of food each day can change the outlook of a student
Each morning when it’s dark outside Sylvia Louvros can be found preparing to feed as many as 50 students, a number of whom wouldn’t be in school that day if she wasn’t there making breakfast. As the advocate for impoverished students attending Coquitlam’s Banting Middle School, Louvros, the school’s youth worker, has seen how much […]