Today the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund launches its 14th Adopt-A-School campaign to help schools deal with the effects poverty and privation are having on an estimated 20 per cent of our children.
Adopt-A-School began in 2011 and has since directed $15.1 million to feed, clothe and provide comfort to children arriving at school in distress
Since Adopt-A-School began in 2011, the campaign has directed $15.1 million to feed, clothe and provide whatever comfort can be given to children arriving at school in distress from hunger, a lack of appropriate clothing, or with other needs affecting their welfare.
What teachers and principals have described since 2011 is real suffering — more so this year as the cost-of-living crisis is causing widespread hardship for impoverished families.
These are not children uncomfortable or vexed by not having what they need when they need it, as middle-class kids might be if they find themselves hungry.
These are children whose health and welfare are threatened because they are often without access to necessities.
So, what does it look like?
One principal came out of her office and found a six-year-old lying on the floor immobile, and no one could get a response from her until the principal got down to her level with something to eat.
Students come to school retching from hunger but can only throw up bile because their stomachs are empty, or are lightheaded, or have panic attacks and get sent to a doctor who will inevitably diagnose hunger as the cause.
Then there is the case of the mother and four children — two of whom were infants — who stayed outside a school all night because she didn’t have the bus fare to go home. Hungry, and to ensure they could be fed breakfast the next day, they huddled together all night until they were discovered in the morning.
A principal seeking help from Adopt-A-School this year wrote of students leaving school not knowing when they would get their next meal.
A youth worker wept this fall while describing the condition of some students and her anguish at being helpless to do anything about it except to provide for them from her own pocket.
When Adopt-A-School began in 2011, the objective was to raise money to establish breakfast and lunch programs in schools for children arriving at school in need of food, which we did.
Then it became apparent that hunger was only one condition afflicting impoverished children. There was a need for clothing, footwear, and a whole range of necessities, so Adopt-A-School created an emergency fund for teachers to get what they needed to protect the welfare of children — even if it meant providing grocery cards for times when parents had no money and no food at home to feed their children.
When Adopt-A-School began, there were no government programs to feed hungry children in schools. Thankfully, the provincial government brought in its feeding futures program two years ago, and the federal government is moving in the same direction.
But this year saw the end of the province’s student and family affordability fund that since 2022 had provided $20 million a year so schools could help needy families with school costs or clothes or food support at home.
Its disappearance leaves Adopt-A-School to help with the need and has provoked a dramatic increase in requests from schools for funds for emergencies and grocery store gift cards.
But the reality is there is no way Adopt-A-School can replace a government program.
All we can do is our best and for that we need our readers, donors and supporters to help us.
Adopt-A-School began when a teacher in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside described the disturbing condition of some children attending her school in an email sent to The Vancouver Sun. She asked the public a simple question: Would you advocate for a child in need who was not your own?
The response was emphatic and the children’s fund responded by creating Adopt-A-School.
The generosity and concern of the public have allowed Adopt-A-School to provide teachers with the means to step in and safeguard a child’s welfare.
One issue — ensuring children receive food at school and at home if necessary — is dominant.
Harold Munro, editor-in-chief of The Vancouver Sun and Province and chair of The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund board which administers Adopt-A-School, said teachers “across the province are telling us that families living on social assistance or minimum wage jobs are finding it hard to pay their monthly expenses and provide their children with sufficient food.”
“It’s a dilemma for which the only reasonable reaction is to try and help them,” he said.
“We just can’t leave families hungry and children suffering. That’s not who we are. So, if you can help, I’m asking again for your support and generosity as we try to provide whatever relief we can to the children that need it,” said Munro.
No administration costs are deducted from donations to Adopt-A-School. One hundred per cent of donations 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)
