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 […]
‘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 […]