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Friends in Need Food Bank celebrates successful launch of school meal program

First full year serving Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows schools saw overwhelming support
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A selection of the food that gets delivered to schools through the Friends in Need Food Bank’s School Meal/Snack program. Photo provided by Laity View Elementary

No child should go through a day hungry, especially at school.

That’s why the Friends in Need Food Bank launched the School Meal/Snack program, which just wrapped up its first year of operation serving School District No. 42.

It’s a program that holds a special place in the hearts of the food bank’s staff, and that passion has led to overwhelming success.

“We’re very proud of this program,” executive director Mary Robson said. “The response we’ve gotten from the beginning has been overwhelming.”

After receiving $5,000 in grant money from Husky gas stations, the program launched as a pilot project in January 2016.

By the time the 2016-17 school year was drawing to a close, 80 per cent of the district’s elementary schools were signed up, along with seven outreach programs.

Under the program, each school sends in a shopping list of items they want for the week, chosen from a rundown provided by the food bank.

Volunteers then shop for all the dry goods on Fridays, before picking up perishables on Monday mornings on their way to dropping off the deliveries at the schools by noon the same day.

The food is then used for communal breakfast and lunch programs that serve any student who signs up ahead of time.

Written testimonials from some of the participating schools show the program is making a huge difference for their more vulnerable students.

“This program has been so amazing for our school,” Glenwood Elementary child care worker Christa Dey-Girard wrote, “and the volunteers who help make it happen are truly very hardworking, thoughtful and dedicated to making sure the students in our school are taken care of the best to their ability.”

“I can without a doubt say that if we didn’t have [this program] to help feed our students, we would have a really hard time finding the resources to feed our students wholesome and nutritious food.”

“We have heard teacher and administration feedback, indicating that attendance and punctuality are up,” a spokesperson from Blue Mountain Elementary wrote. “Students are making peer and adult connections while they are starting their day with a healthy balanced meal.”

Robson says she and her staff feel gratified that they’ve made a difference for so many students.

“Each school has their own needs, and it’s our job to respond to those needs,” Robson said. “We’re really proud of how well we’ve done so far.”

Word of mouth soon spread of the program’s success, eventually reaching some of the district’s high schools.

In May, Westview teacher Amy Laidlaw reached out to Friends in Need about getting involved with the program, quickly becoming a test case for the program’s expansion.

Laidlaw says the results spoke for themselves.

“I wasn’t sure what the turnout would be,” she said, “but the first week we had 50 students sign up, so we ordered for that many.

“The next week, we ordered the same amount, but we ran out of food. The week after that, we had 80 students. It expanded very quickly.

“We had no leftovers for the rest of the year. So it’s been a success, for sure.”

Laidlaw echoes the statements from the elementary schools involved in the program when she talks about the positive effect a good breakfast has on the students.

“We never see any phones out,” she said. “They’re talking to each other, with staff. Some of them even have homework out in front of them. It’s a positive social environment that the students have embraced.”

Laidlaw hopes to be able to offer the breakfast program every day of the next school year.

Robson also hopes to expand the participation of senior schools in the program, but she says that’s dependent on the number of donations the food bank receives — something she’s already hard at work on.

“We’re applying for grants throughout the summer so we can get additional funding to add on more senior schools,” she said.

“We want to continue this success, so we’re going to keep collecting public and private donations and hopefully earn enough to keep going.”