Needs of hungry schoolkids are daunting — we’re asking for your help

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Today, The Vancouver Sun launches its annual Adopt-A-School appeal that many thousands of school children rely on for food, clothing and other necessities that poverty denies them.

Already record numbers of applications from schools seeking financial help to alleviate the suffering of these children — arriving at school hungry, or in clothes inappropriate for winter — total $2.9 million. That sum is daunting, but teachers, alarmed at what they are seeing, believe the money will help.

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Two years ago, the B.C. NDP government initiated its Feeding Futures program — the first time the province recognized the necessity for a dedicated fund to feed impoverished children. It set aside $214 million over three years ($71.1 million a year).

This year, the federal government announced the National School Food Program, four years after proposing it, setting aside $1 billion over five years — $200 million a year — to provide meals for needy children. How much will come to B.C. has not been announced.

On paper those sums look enormous. But are they sufficient to keep hunger out of the classroom?

Let’s hear from a Lower Mainland child and youth worker, one of the hundreds of teachers who has applied for help: “Ninety-nine per cent of families that come to our school utilize any programs and resources we offer. My lunch program currently sits at 85 (students) and is growing rapidly. I anticipate the number will be closer to 95-plus as the year progresses.”

With a cap of 55 placed on the number of lunches provided by government funds, she is left using a combination of community resources, such as sandwiches supplied by the Salvation Army, to feed the remainder, but still comes up short.

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“I have had to put kids on a wait-list for lunches, and have never had to do so in the past. How do you tell one child they can eat but another they will have to wait until the money is available?

“This absolutely breaks my heart. I never thought I would be the one putting kids on a wait-list to have their most basic needs fulfilled.”

Adopt-A-School has been feeding and clothing impoverished school children since 2011, sending $14 million to hundreds of schools over that period, as well as championing the right of impoverished students to receive government-funded meals as they do in many countries such as the United States and Britain.

If schools are asking Adopt-A-School for money to feed thousands of children, then the provincial and federal programs must be regarded as embryonic, a welcome beginning but a long way from being effective.

By comparison to the $200 million the Canadian government is allocating this year, U.S. federal breakfast and lunch programs cost $22.6 billion last year. Canada has a tenth of America’s population and has similar child poverty rates, which suggests it would take $2.26 billion — 11 times more than scheduled — to feed our hungry children at the level of the American program that has been around since 1946.

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Teachers are saying that more parents are finding it difficult to provide for their children due to the post-pandemic cost-of-living crisis — rent increases, skyrocketing grocery prices — that have brought more hunger to the school door than they have ever encountered before.

Hardest hit are families relying on social assistance or minimum wage jobs.

One Gulf Islands vice principal said she was “facing unprecedented levels of food insecurity among the families in our school. … It’s our utmost priority to find a way to meet the needs of these most vulnerable students.”

Not only was food necessary, she needed money to provide warm, winter clothing for children coming to school inadequately dressed without jackets and with holes in their shoes.

Most of the applications received by Adopt-A-School this year contain a version of the same message.

Hunger isn’t an inconvenience, it’s a medical condition that causes suffering, and educators have told The Vancouver Sun how it often manifests in students — hyper-activity causing serious disruption in class, or a withdrawal into lassitude. Some children have panic attacks requiring medical attention, or will vomit with only bile coming up. Some — especially the youngest — seemed stunned, unable to comprehend what is happening to their bodies.

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Teachers constantly worry that some children are only being fed at school, existing on whatever they receive one day until they show up again the next.

Weekends, too, could see them without much, if anything to eat, and come Monday some will be ravenous, eating large quantities of food.

As a result many teachers are asking Adopt-A-School to provide weekend food supplements and help for families who run out of food at times during the month.

Vancouver Sun editor-in-chief Harold Munro said the message from teachers was disturbing.

“Each year at this time we are faced with the responsibility to step in and try to help children whose parents are afflicted by not being able to pay rent and provide them sufficient food,” said Munro, who is chair of the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund board which administers the Adopt-A-School program. “We can’t ignore this and we are asking our readers once again to help us feed and clothe these children.

“Since 2011, you have stuck with us, and your donations have fed and supported thousands and thousands of children who would not otherwise have been fed each day or dressed to withstand the winter,” said Munro.

“In the weeks to come, we will publish stories about these needs. I am asking each and every reader to consider what is at stake for these children and to support our campaign.

“I would like to remind you that 100 per cent of donations will be used for schools. We do not deduct any administration costs from donations.”

gbellett@gmail.com

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.

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