All Stories
New Westminster school district needs help serving lunches to hungry kids
“We have two boys who never complain but they are sure thankful when they can get meatballs, mashed potatoes and carrots.” A year ago the New Westminster school district was...
2022/2023
Prospect of food each day can change the outlook of a student
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...
2022/2023
‘Everyone knows that a hungry child can’t learn’
It was -2 C outside, the snow was falling and Jaiminder Kang was thankful that The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund had made it possible for her Surrey school to have...
2022/2023
Misfortune places family in acute need
If the single mother was barely making ends meet then — paying rent of $2,500 a month — what has happened since is crushing her. It’s just as well there...
2022/2023
In Surrey, school programs to feed kids face increasing need
Bear Creek Elementary routinely feeds 40 kids who come to school without eating any breakfast Until this fall, Diana Bradley had been able to use her principal’s fund — a...
2022/2023
Feeding Downtown Eastside kids vital for forging a better future
Lord Strathcona principal on his school’s children needing nourishment as ‘a prerequisite to learning’ and its ‘freeway out of poverty’ Jason Eng, principal of Lord Strathcona elementary school in the...
2022/2023
Poverty in remote, rural area means no access to supports
The rising price of fuel is a huge hit when it means you can’t afford to drive to a grocery store Wikipedia describes this tiny speck of properties east of...
2022/2023
A third of the students at Halfmoon Bay Elementary need some form of help
“Plans are currently in place to support various families but the financial costs are excessive and likely unsustainable over time. The ongoing financial and emotional stress makes it very difficult...
2022/2023
Big rush to Monday breakfast in Ladysmith
“We have a number of families who are struggling with everything,” provider says It’s on Monday mornings when school opens that the distressing consequences of run-away food and housing costs...
2022/2023
Burnaby alternative school needs help feeding hungry kids
Often the only food students can depend on receiving each day is what they receive from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program that supports the school. Many of the students attending...
2022/2023
Academy feeds kids with music and, it hopes, with food
School in the Downtown Eastside offers free lessons in an effort to bring music to city’s poorest children It’s a Thursday afternoon and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is about to show...
2022/2023
Nanaimo school seeks funds to build safe room for kids
11 years after a teacher’s plea led to the creation of Adopt-A-School by the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Society, the need to greater then ever Eleven years ago, it was...
2022/2023
Nanaimo’s Arrow program fills a huge void for troubled kids
“We are trying to create a safe space here. Many of these kids have had a rough start (in life) and mainstream school wasn’t working. We consider Arrow to be...
2022/2023
Chilliwack school needs help addressing poverty
“A lot of money is allocated to support programs here but there are a few … loopholes where some families aren’t receiving proper food or clothing and we are unable...
2022/2023
Feeding 50 students breakfast on $40 a week an impossible task
“We estimate close to 200 (children) need some form of assistance from the school, whether food or school supplies.” — Springwood Elementary Child and Youth Care worker Dannika McAllister PARKSVILLE...
2022/2023
Staff struggle to feed students every day at Suwa’lkh Connections
“It worked well for some time but things have got significantly worse. We have a significant increase in (students’) needs this year and less to no donated food coming in.”...
2022/2023
Please help us feed the bellies, and souls, of our children
Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund-operated program designed to alleviate the suffering of children arriving at school hungry or in need of such things as adequate clothes. The best way to understand...
2022/2023
$305,000 donation for computers in schools will be transformative
“Kids who can’t afford computers or don’t have access to them are at a real disadvantage. It’s a major concern if they aren’t computer literate when they leave school.” Hundreds...
2022/2023
Need for food and clothing for schoolkids greater than ever
The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program has sent $1.4 million to 161 schools this year to help feed and clothe children. The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program has sent $1.4 million to...
2021/2022
For Surrey principal, school breakfast program is personal
Linda Chau, principal of Surrey’s Mary Jane Shannon Elementary, was two years old in 1980 when her family — boat people who had fled Vietnam — were admitted to Canada...
2021/2022
Project CHEF transfers its resources to Adopt-a-School
The funds were transferred with the stipulation the amount not be disclosed. But it was a substantial donation. It was the most successful culinary program ever offered in the...
2021/2022
Pandemic job losses at home sending kids to school hungry
For the past few years, a make-shift ensemble of parent volunteers, the Salvation Army and the local food bank have been trying to address hunger among some of the children...
2021/2022
Removing stigma key to feeding starving kids
HAGENSBORG — There are three exits to the outside world from this community in the Bella Coola Valley: ferry, light aircraft, or a five-hour trip along an occasionally paved logging...
2021/2022
Surrey WRAP program looks out for at-risk kids
The program is seeking $10,000 from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign as WRAP doesn’t have discretionary funds to help with emergencies. On Dec. 1, Jon Ross’ plate was full: a...
2021/2022
Teacher feeding hungry kids at her own expense
Bonnie Wendt describes the educational benefits of feeding impoverished and hungry students. For those with sufficient income, tonight is the traditional time for gifting. But for Bonnie Wendt, giving is...
2021/2022
Proper clothing needed to help schoolkids through winter
Students often coming to school hungry and ill-prepared for the winter weather. The impoverished teenagers Randy Horton cares for in the Sunrise Alternative program at Vancouver’s Templeton Secondary could use...
2021/2022
London Drugs delivers Christmas gifts to needy students
This year, a record number of schools from all areas of the province are asking for help to feed and clothe students, with requests to The Vancouver Sun totalling almost...
2021/2022
Vancouver lawyer has sent $450,000 to needy children since 2014
It is unlikely there is anyone with a greater understanding of what it feels like to be hungry to the point of starvation, or to be in need of the...
2021/2022
Wildfires caused additional pressure on hungry kids
The Vernon school district is asking The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program for $8,500 so it can continue to provide lunch for 206 children daily. For schools in Vernon it was...
2021/2022
Kitsilano program works to lower barriers to access to education
The Vinery Alternative program is asking for $10,500 in funding. Kitsilano, with its narrow, leafy streets of quaint, multi-million-dollar homes, is synonymous with many things, but poverty is not one...
2021/2022
Living up to the challenge of getting youths back into school
We work with some kids who haven’t been to school in three years and who live in total chaos, and we manage to get them graduated and into work programs....
2021/2022
Students facing even greater challenges with homes under water
The children’s fund board, which administers Adopt-A-School, approved a grant of $10,000 to help the school in lieu of donations arriving, plus an extra $2,000 to cover emergencies that have...
2021/2022
School children get help from the young and the young-at-heart
This year, almost double the amount of schools have applied for assistance to feed and clothe children than in the past. On the morning of May 21, 2021, two Vancouver...
2021/2022
Terrace school’s breakfast, lunch program at risk
Terrace Middle School needs $10,000 from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign to get through the year. Sonja Donnan is seeing an increasing number of students arrive at Skeena Middle School...
2021/2022
Donations from family and friends not enough to keep food program afloat
James Hill Elementary Principal Lynn Fairley is asking The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign for $11,000 to keep her breakfast, lunch and weekend food going. What do you do as a...
2021/2022
Isolated elementary school looking to provide simple snacks for hungry kids
It’s a trek of 90 kilometres down Highway 28 from this central Vancouver Island village to reach any source of fresh produce. Natasha Toth would like to have a hot...
2021/2022
Nanaimo school’s food program will run out of money by Christmas
Knox is asking for $22,000 from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign to carry on after Christmas as no other source of money has materialized. Holly Knox has 200 or so...
2021/2022
Vancouver Sun charity marks 10th year of helping schoolkids
Before the pandemic of 2019, approximately one in five of this province’s children lived below the poverty line. Almost two years into this crisis there is every sign that poverty...
2021/2022
Shelley Fralic: An advocate for children in need
There are thousands of children in this province who have been fed, clothed and cherished because of the concern and compassion of Shelley Fralic, one of the instigators of the...
2020/2021
Adopt-A-School: $1.2 million in grants given out to schools and organizations
“We have never had so many requests for help before. It is a measure of our readers’ concern and generosity that we have been able to meet these requests.” —...
2020/2021
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