All Stories
Families in ‘a constant state of grieving’ from community’s high death rate
Tragedies from COVID, drug overdoses, suicide, old age, car accidents, organ failure, cold, exposure inevitably show up in schools. FORT ST. JAMES — The last few years have not...
2023/2024
When kids are hungry, you step up, says longtime contributor
“When you know there are kids who are hungry and need to be fed — what else can you do?” — David McCann Among the donors who support the Vancouver...
2023/2024
Nelson school’s grocery program a lifeline for children and parents
$7,000 from AAS would provide hot lunch subsidies, breakfast and snack program for children and funds for the family grocery support program. It’s a disturbing sign of the times...
2023/2024
Surrey’s Safe Schools WRAP program needs your help to assist others
Safe Schools is designed to intervene and prevent students — many of them impoverished — from being targeted and exploited by criminal gangs. She wept without a sound, just...
2023/2024
Nelson school grapples with big city problems
Too many of school’s students are homeless and hungry NELSON — There was a time when many of the issues afflicting residents here would more likely have been expected in...
2023/2024
Readers give generously to tackle youth hunger
Vancouver lawyer Jack Kowarsky knows what it’s like to be hungry and deprived. So, he’s given $650,000 to Adopt-A-School since 2014. It is not unusual for teachers to describe children...
2023/2024
Non-verbal kids can ‘sing their hearts out’
“They have difficulty with words, but when we bring in a music therapist, they sing their hearts out. It’s a form of communication for them.” There is no lack...
2023/2024
Principal reports a rise in desperation among students
Too many families cannot afford food, housing At one time education was only about equipping students with the knowledge needed to face the world as adults. That was a...
2023/2024
Tight-knit village takes care of its own, but needs a bit of help
Similar to many other rural B.C. communities, families are migrating here in the hopes of finding some relief from the high cost of living — particularly the price of rent....
2023/2024
Needs are extreme at several Surrey schools
Students’ needs are extreme in Surrey, where classrooms are growing rapidly. It was a cold morning in Surrey, the temperature a few degrees above freezing. But out in the...
2023/2024
East Van school sees dramatic jump in students seeking food, clothing
Teacher covering some expenses out of her own pocket. A year ago, as many as 40 students a day in need of food could be found visiting a small...
2023/2024
Breakfast program cancelled in face of growing demand, lack of funding
Isolated Crawford Bay school faces challenges with resiliency. It’s unlikely that most British Columbians could point a finger at this tiny village of 350 residents on a map. It sits...
2023/2024
Schools in remote towns face additional support challenges
Added burden to some families who don’t have their own vehicles or who find the cost of gas for a round trip of 140 kilometres to a supermarket difficult to...
2023/2024
Wealthy neighbourhoods don’t protect schoolkids from poverty
This year’s campaign has received 204 applications — mostly from schools — seeking financial help so they can care for impoverished children arriving at school hungry or without proper winter...
2023/2024
Schools becoming links to community resources for students
Student population needs a great deal of help, both while they are at school and also while they are not. Families relying on a minimum wage job of $16.75 an...
2023/2024
Warm breakfast an integral part of Attendance Matters program
Forsyth Elementary’s enrolment has rapidly expanded in three years when principal had 315 children under her care. Now she has 440, many of them newcomers to Canada. The possible loss...
2023/2024
Abbotsford school seeks to revive breakfast program
About half of Abbotsford Middle School’s 720 students could be considered vulnerable Abbotsford Middle School has 720 students, ages 11 to 13, of which half could be considered vulnerable, says...
2023/2024
School finds feeding kids essential in shadows of Vancouver highrises
Being hungry is a terrible recipe for learning The tipping point came two years ago when the number of hungry students arriving at King George secondary, deep in the heart...
2023/2024
Helping schoolkids requires careful approach to support
“There’s a lot of shame around needing support, so you have to be careful how you navigate and reach out.” “I never knew I was poor until the school told...
2023/2024
Clothes, as well as food, are a priority for schoolkids
After a summer of almost unbroken sunshine, the rain and bad weather is causing problems for families who do not have the means to buy proper clothes for the winter....
2023/2024
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...
2023/2024
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
‘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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
In Surrey, school programs to feed kids face increasing need
Bear Creek Elementary routinely feeds 40 kids who come to school without eating any breakfast Until this fall, Diana Bradley had been able to use her principal’s fund — a...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
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.”...
2022/2023
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...
2022/2023
$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...
2022/2023
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