Rock City Elementary School in Nanaimo is located in an area populated by low-income and often transient families, which has seen the school experience a steady annual increase in the number of financially vulnerable students coming through its doors.

Among the needs of those children is food, and to help meet that need the school established The Rock City Bistro, which provides a healthy breakfast, lunch and snacks, critical to a child’s physical and educational growth.

Rock City has applied for a $3,000 Adopt-a-School grant to provide food to 25 children from the ages of five to 12.

In addition to feeding children, the Bistro provides students with a chance to sit down and engage with adult volunteers, a positive social interaction that is often the only one they experience in a day.

The goal, according to staff, is to feed the whole child, not just their bodies but their minds and spirits.