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 […]
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 […]