Ground zero for The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program is Admiral Seymour Elementary on Keefer Street in the Downtown Eastside.
Since 2011, the Adopt-A-School program’s largest single donor has been the Lohn Foundation, and its principal Jack Kowarsky.
In 2011, teacher Carrie Gelson tossed a large brick into the placid waters of the education system by revealing that the welfare of impoverished children coming to her inner-city school was in free fall.
Many arrived hungry, in clothes and shoes that provided no protection from the weather — some suffering from bedbug bites or lice, their emotional state fragile from lack of sleep or from the pressures of life that afflict the poor.
The public was alarmed by Gelson’s disclosure on the pages of The Sun. The immediate result was that the issue was no longer being kept in-house.
When Gelson issued her do-you-think-this-is-right challenge, the city woke up to the fact there was a serious hole in Canada’s social welfare net and the poorest of children were dropping through.
Soon it became obvious that none of this misery was confined to the Downtown Eastside. Schools across the province had similar problems — hungry children, poorly dressed, suffering from a lack of essentials necessary for their welfare but denied them because of poverty.
It would animate The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund to set up its Adopt-A-School campaign as a way to help schools alleviate the effects of poverty. Fourteen years later, this has resulted in more than $15 million in aid being sent to hundreds of schools to feed, clothe and protect the welfare of impoverished children.
At the same time, The Sun championed the idea that Canada must provide school meals to hungry children as other western countries had been doing for decades.
Of the 36 members of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Canada was the only country that had no national program to feed impoverished children.
Two years ago, the B.C. government responded and launched its Feeding Futures program providing school meals for these students. The federal government has its own new program.
Since 2011, the Adopt-A-School program’s largest single donor has been the Lohn Foundation.
The foundation’s principal, Vancouver lawyer Jack Kowarsky, has directed almost $1 million to Adopt-A-School over the years.
Recently, he met with Admiral Seymour principal Aaron Singh at the school.
Part of this year’s $150,000 donation from the Lohn Foundation, some $15,000, will go to Admiral Seymour so Singh can provide children and families with food at home during the Christmas holidays to prevent them suffering hunger, and at other times during the year when they are without food or money.
“I’m on the ground floor, so I can see where the money goes,” Singh told Kowarsky. “And what you are doing is going to make a huge difference to these families.
“We see it (hunger) first — and you never get numbed to it — but at the same time you understand it’s part of the world we are working in. So the first thing we ask our kids is, ‘Are you hungry?’
“Being able to help makes a huge difference, Jack, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you,” said Singh.
Kowarsky — a Holocaust survivor born in Poland before the Second World War — knows hunger and privation. That he survived is a miracle.
“We just can’t leave children in this state, being hungry or in need of proper clothes,” said Kowarsky. “It’s not right. If we can do something to help them and their families, then we must.”
“I want to ask everyone to think about this, and if they can do something I would ask them to contribute.”
This winter, 164 schools are seeking a total of $1.5 million from Adopt-A-School to help children and families in need of food, clothing and other essentials.
The Adopt-A-School campaign is administered by the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund, a registered charity. No administrative fees are deducted from donations. All donations will be sent to schools.
How to donate
1. ONLINE: Donate online with a credit card at www.vansunkidsfund.ca
2. PHONE: To pay by credit card, call 604-813-8673.
By Gerry Bellett (gbellett@gmail.com)
