This is an account of two single mothers, one living on social assistance, the other with a minimum-wage job, and how they can’t survive paying rent and feeding themselves and their children without help.
They are also being helped by Surrey school district’s Wraparound team.
Neither are being identified.
Both families are supported by Surrey school district’s Wraparound team — the anti-gang unit that deals with high-risk youth in danger of being recruited into criminal activities, including sexual exploitation or involvement in drug dealing or other crimes.
The Wrap program is part of Surrey’s Safe Schools efforts, and both mothers have daughters in the program.
The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund which administers Adopt-A-School is seeking to raise $25,000 for the Wrap program so the team can continue to provide emergency food and necessities to families such as those profiled here.
Adopt-A-School funds have been used to provide grocery cards and other necessities to both of these families this year.
The first mom is on social assistance and has three teenage daughters at home and an 18-year-old son who lives away but often comes home looking for food.
This mother’s income is $1,530 from social assistance, and with federal child tax credits totals about $3,000 a month. Her rent is $2,500, leaving her with $500 to look after the needs of five people.
How do you manage?
“I don’t. I pay the rent and whatever bills.”
How often are you hungry?
“All the time.”
How often do the children eat?
“They eat at school.”
Jon Ross, a Wrap program supervisor, says the mother is “a safe adult for other kids, so a lot of her kids’ friends come over. They might have some hardship as well, and so there’s stress on how much food there is in the house.”
To the mom: You don’t have any extra resources?
“No.”
How long has it been like this?
“For about a year now.”
How do you feed yourself and get through the week?
“We use the gift cards, mostly, and help from friends who bring food over.”
Do you ask the school for help?
“Sometimes, yes. They send grocery bags home each week.”
So, your children get two meals a day at school, how often do they miss meals at home?
“Almost every day.”
What about weekends?
“I usually make do with what I have. I use the food bank.”
Most of your $500 is spent on food?
“Yes.”
For personal hygiene, clothes, you don’t have any money for that?
“Not really, no.”
What is the worst thing about all this?
“Seeing the kids hungry.”
Ross explained that Adopt-A-School gift cards allow for more balanced nutrition than what the food bank or school can provide.
As for her daughter, Ross said she is responding to the help received from the team.
“She’s at school now. It used to be a police call every day, and now there’s zero.”
The second mom came to Canada in 1994 from Egypt.
Until this time last year, she and her family were self-sufficient, but then her husband died, so his $3,600-a-month salary was lost. She had to move from a house to a basement suite that costs $1,400 a month.
She has two sons, one in Alberta, the other in Vancouver.
“They will ask me for help when they need money or something else. I still support my kids.”
She went from a combined salary of $5,800 a month to surviving on a minimum-wage salary of $2,200 a month working 40 hours a week at a fast-food restaurant.
Although her 22-year-old son doesn’t live at her home, he is often there looking for food.
“Most of my income goes to rent. I cut down on things. I don’t eat. I make sure my kids have food.”
So you miss meals?
“I eat once a day. When I go to work, I will eat before I start. That’s for that day. I will eat again tomorrow. I can’t eat twice because that’s not what my stomach is used to now. It has shrunk.”
But are there times when you don’t get to eat?
“Yes.”
Do you sometimes go a couple of days without eating?
“Yes.”
“Without Jon’s help (with Adopt-A-School grocery cards), things would be a lot worse. There wouldn’t be food in the house because on that paycheque there’s no way I can buy groceries.”
What’s the hardest thing about your life?
“Everything. Working, looking after the kids. I have to make sure they have food, shelter, that my bills are paid. I don’t buy anything for myself. It’s been like that for a year now.”
With schools closed for Christmas holidays, these families will not have access to school meals for their children making the need for Adopt-A-School grocery cards more acute.
The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund is being asked for more than $1.5 million from 164 schools seeking help to provide food, clothes and other necessities for impoverished children.
Schools are often the last resort for parents seeking help and since Adopt-A-School began in 2011 more than $15 million has been sent to schools to protect the welfare of impoverished students, supplying them with food, clothes and other necessities.
No administrative fees are deducted from donations. The full amount will be directed 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)
