B.C.’s decision to halt its $20-million student and family affordability fund is having a devastating effect on impoverished students who no longer can expect help from the fund when they are without food or in need of clothes.
“They come in with nothing,” says a school youth worker in Abbotsford. “So, I’ve been bringing stuff from home.”
“I just don’t understand why they have cut funding when the needs are way higher than they’ve ever been,” said Hayley Davey, a youth and family worker in Abbotsford’s Yale secondary school.
The fund was set up in 2022 to help families unable pay for school supplies or class trips. But many schools faced with problems of how to help students in need also used the fund to send home food or provide clothes.
Davey said one student she was able to help with the fund was in a dire state — she was looking after a sick father at home and a younger sister — “mom’s not in the picture” — but there was no money in the house for food and the student needed clothes, socks, underwear, laundry soap, shampoo — basic necessities.
”I was able to take her to Walmart and get her what she needed. She also needed stuff to make meals for them — ground beef, chicken and vegetables,” she said.
Davey said it was a shock when she arrived at school in September to find the fund wasn’t available.
“It’s a huge loss. I only found out the first day.”
Her job is to support students who are struggling at school and in life but is now without the means to help them financially.
“I have to be really mindful now how I am to support these kids because I can’t say ‘don’t worry that’s a stress I can take away’ and then not be able to do it.”
But she has been trying anyway — using her own money.
Youth care worker Hayley Davey in action with yogurt parfaits and other breakfast items at Yale Secondary School in Abbotsford B.C., Oct 9, 2025. PHOTO BY NICK PROCAYLO /10109370A
Within the first week of the school year, she had already spent hundreds of dollars on students whose condition she couldn’t ignore.
“They come in with nothing.”
Davey has also dipped into her closet to find clothes and shoes to bring to school.
She said the loss of the fund will affect about 140 students at her school.
With students coming to school hungry she is able to use the provincial government’s Feeding Futures program to provide a breakfast sandwich in the morning and a parfait made from yogurt and granola and fruit for lunch.
“But the rules for Feeding Futures are very strict. I can’t buy granola bars because it’s not a breakfast item. I had some squirrelled away from last year, but it’s been two weeks (since school started) and I’m down to nothing now,” Davey explained.
“So, I’ve been bringing stuff from home.”
Gary Tymoschuk, chair of the Surrey school board, said when the fund was announced in 2002, “we knew it was not going to last.”
He said Surrey had other community resources that it could turn to.
Tymoschuk said The Wubs Family Foundation is giving Surrey $1 million over five years that will be used to help families.
“Also we have help from the Surrey Firefighters and of course from The Vancouver Sun’s Children’s Fund,” he said.
Last year, Surrey received almost $400,000 from The Sun’s charity of which $183,080 was designated as emergency funds to help families struggling to buy food, clothing and other necessities.
However, Surrey received $9.3 million from the no defunct affordability fund in the past three years — $3.1 million a year on average. Even with the generous donation from the Wubs Foundation and the emergency funds received from The Vancouver Sun that loss will nowhere near be covered.
The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund has seen a large jump in requests from schools seeking emergency funds this fall.
Surrey has received $4,247,231 from The Vancouver Sun’s Children’s Fund and its Adopt-A-School program since 2011. This has been used to pay for breakfast and lunch programs at dozens of schools and provide teachers with emergency funds to support the welfare of impoverished students.
Since 2011, Adopt-A-School has provided $15.1 million to schools across the province to help impoverished students.
Yale secondary is asking Adopt-A-School for $20,000. Davey said the money was urgently needed.
“We have some kids dropping by my room and I have to say ‘I’m sorry I don’t have any food right now. Any hungry kid should be fed.
”We need money for food, clothes and some school supplies. I’ve given away shoes and clothes and sweaters because we had an earthquake drill and some kids didn’t have any sweaters or coats.”
There are no administration fees deducted from donations made to Adopt-A-School — 100 per cent of donations will be sent on to schools.
Learn more about the Adopt-A-School program and consider making a donation at vansunkidsfund.ca
By Gerry Bellett (gbellett@gmail.com)
