Chilliwack school needs help addressing poverty
“A lot of money is allocated to support programs here but there are a few … loopholes where some families aren’t receiving proper food or clothing and we are unable to provide as much as they need.” — teacher Ashley Munro Chilliwack Central Elementary is a small school in the heart of this small city’s […]
Feeding 50 students breakfast on $40 a week an impossible task
“We estimate close to 200 (children) need some form of assistance from the school, whether food or school supplies.” — Springwood Elementary Child and Youth Care worker Dannika McAllister PARKSVILLE — There are fewer more pleasant communities to live in than this small municipality on the east coast of Vancouver Island with its temperate weather, […]
Staff struggle to feed students every day at Suwa’lkh Connections
“It worked well for some time but things have got significantly worse. We have a significant increase in (students’) needs this year and less to no donated food coming in.” — Youth Worker Karin Leathwood. Staff at Coquitlam’s alternative school Suwa’lkh Connections have been relying on donations of rescued food to feed their 30 students […]
Please help us feed the bellies, and souls, of our children
Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund-operated program designed to alleviate the suffering of children arriving at school hungry or in need of such things as adequate clothes. The best way to understand the misery thousands of impoverished children and families are experiencing due to a cost-of-living crisis is to lift quotes from some of the 170 applications […]
$305,000 donation for computers in schools will be transformative
“Kids who can’t afford computers or don’t have access to them are at a real disadvantage. It’s a major concern if they aren’t computer literate when they leave school.” Hundreds of Vancouver students whose lack of exposure to technology is leading to digital illiteracy are being helped by a $305,000 donation from The Vancouver Sun’s […]
Need for food and clothing for schoolkids greater than ever
The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program has sent $1.4 million to 161 schools this year to help feed and clothe children. The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program has sent $1.4 million to 161 schools this year to help feed and clothe children whose parents are finding it difficult to pay their bills while working at minimum-wage jobs […]
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 […]