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 the prospect of food can change things.

“There are many kids that have a lot of anxiety and are not really motivated to come to school but the breakfast program — knowing what we are offering — gets them here.

“It pushes them forward for the rest of the day,” she said.

Others for whom home life is a trial, can be found waiting outside for breakfast at 7 a.m.

“This is a safe spot for them. And in the bad weather it’s a place they can come and have a cup of cocoa.”

When Louvros came to the school last year she dispensed with charging these students a nominal amount for breakfast and lunch.

“These kids are already in need so I took that away.”

She has asked The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Adopt-A-School (AAS) program for $8,000 so she can provide 50 breakfasts and 32 lunches for students arriving at school hungry or without sufficient food for lunch.

Breakfast consists of yogurt, nut free granola, waffles, cream cheese, butter, jam, along with bread and bagels donated by Cobs Bread.

When breakfast is over Louvros starts making sandwiches for lunch and begins filling as many as 32 lunch bags with a sandwich and a variety of fruit, vegetables and snacks.

“The kids bring me their lunch bag and I pack it as if they were getting their lunch from home,” she said.

“It really helps them. They are able to sit down and have lunch and no one needs to know they can’t afford it. So they have this bag full of food and are able to hang out with their friends. It’s awesome.”

The Backpack Buddies program is active in the school and provides weekend food for some families.

And in the week before Christmas break, Louvros was busy making hampers to get families through the holidays.

“It’s not a food bank sort of hamper. We’re doing our own.”

Money is also needed to clothe those students who arrive at school without coats and proper footwear.

“We have one who was wearing crocs everyday during that big dump of snow. Some don’t have proper winter jackets.”

“I see some families really struggling. We have a lot of refugee families that have come here with only the clothes on their backs so we need to facilitate some means of support for them.”

The AAS program has received more than 170 requests from schools across the province totalling almost $2 million to feed and clothe children such as those in Banting Middle School.

By Gerry Bellett (gbellett@gmail.com)