‘Everyone knows that a hungry child can’t learn’
It was -2 C outside, the snow was falling and Jaiminder Kang was thankful that The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund had made it possible for her Surrey school to have a collection of new boots, mitts, scarves and toques on-hand. Without them, children whose families are struggling to pay the rent and find enough money […]
Misfortune places family in acute need
If the single mother was barely making ends meet then — paying rent of $2,500 a month — what has happened since is crushing her. It’s just as well there is a box of tissues handy in the small meeting room at the back of the Surrey school district’s headquarters because sometimes stoicism can only […]
Feeding Downtown Eastside kids vital for forging a better future
Lord Strathcona principal on his school’s children needing nourishment as ‘a prerequisite to learning’ and its ‘freeway out of poverty’ Jason Eng, principal of Lord Strathcona elementary school in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, is a self-confessed foodie. “I’m really into food and cooking,” he admits, resetting a baseball cap that’s unable to restrain […]
Poverty in remote, rural area means no access to supports
The rising price of fuel is a huge hit when it means you can’t afford to drive to a grocery store Wikipedia describes this tiny speck of properties east of Prince George as a “community comprising scattered houses located at the southwest end of Eaglet Lake — east of Willow River.” The only buildings of […]
A third of the students at Halfmoon Bay Elementary need some form of help
“Plans are currently in place to support various families but the financial costs are excessive and likely unsustainable over time. The ongoing financial and emotional stress makes it very difficult for our students to learn.” — Glen Smith HALFMOON BAY — Glen Smith has taught in the Sunshine Coast school district for 35 years and […]
Big rush to Monday breakfast in Ladysmith
“We have a number of families who are struggling with everything,” provider says It’s on Monday mornings when school opens that the distressing consequences of run-away food and housing costs are most vivid in this small, coastal Vancouver Island town. These days there’s always a rush of students seeking a free breakfast at Ladysmith Intermediate […]
Burnaby alternative school needs help feeding hungry kids
Often the only food students can depend on receiving each day is what they receive from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program that supports the school. Many of the students attending Royal Oak Secondary alternative school have enough problems to deal with in their young lives without adding hunger. But it’s there every day anyway to […]
Academy feeds kids with music and, it hopes, with food
School in the Downtown Eastside offers free lessons in an effort to bring music to city’s poorest children It’s a Thursday afternoon and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is about to show its two faces — the downtrodden and the beautiful. A small band of children led by Marlaina Vincent is weaving its way from Lord Strathcona […]
Nanaimo school seeks funds to build safe room for kids
11 years after a teacher’s plea led to the creation of Adopt-A-School by the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Society, the need to greater then ever Eleven years ago, it was an elementary school teacher who exposed the brutal truth about what poverty was doing to the mental health of children in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood. In […]
Nanaimo’s Arrow program fills a huge void for troubled kids
“We are trying to create a safe space here. Many of these kids have had a rough start (in life) and mainstream school wasn’t working. We consider Arrow to be like a family for them.” — Kelsey Price NANAIMO — The phone call catches Kelsey Price in the middle of a drama — not an […]