The Starfish Backpack program has expanded to provide food to needy children over the summer months.
During the school year the Meadowridge Rotary Club supplies special backpacks that are filled with enough food for two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners, plus snacks on weekends packed by volunteers at Burnett Fellowship Church before being delivered to the participating schools.
Currently the program provides 77 backpacks per week. But those supplies will stop at the end of June when the school year ends.
So, the rotary club in partnership with the Friends In Need Food Bank are going to follow up with children already registered for the packs so they still have food during the summer months.
“Hunger doesn’t stop,” said Ineke Boekhorst, past president of the Meadowridge Rotary Club.
“We connected with the schools and the schools are connecting with the parents of the children that are receiving the backpacks so that they can pickup food packages weekly from certain locations,” she explained.
Meadowridge Rotary launched the Starfish Backpack project in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows at the end of September, 2016.
Each backpack costs $525 that covers one student for the entire school year.
“We continuously have to fundraise to be able to continue in September,” said Boekhorst.
Burnett Fellowship Church is hosting the third annual Carboot Sale on June 9 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at 20639 123 Ave. in Maple Ridge. A Car Boot Sale is where household items are sold them from the trunk of a vehicle, much like a garage sale but in a parking lot.
There will also be lots of food available including a pancake breakfast and BBQ lunch as well as a bake sale, cake walk and candy shop. All proceeds will go to the Starfish Pack Program.
For more information go to starfishpack.com/meadowridge/.