The Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries needs drivers for their school lunch bag program.
Particularly for the month of September, said Amelia Norrie with the local chapter.
"We are in need of drivers to pick up the lunches at our kitchen two times a week and deliver to schools," said Norrie, noting that some of their regular drivers are unable to help out the first month students are back at school.
Norrie explained last school year they provided more than 800 lunches to schools in the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows School District and they continued to provide lunches to Kanaka Creek Elementary, a year-round school, throughout the month of July.
Norrie is anticipating that while they will be starting the school year off this September handing out 800 lunches, by wintertime they will be up to 1,000 lunches a week. Ridge Meadows Ministries staff and volunteers prepare the bagged lunches in the Salvation Army kitchen at the housing facility at 22188 Lougheed Hwy., and then volunteers deliver the lunches to the school offices where they are distributed discreetly to the students by school staff.
In total the Salvation Army provides more than 35,000 nutritious bagged lunches to school children throughout district each year.
Anyone interested in receiving bagged lunches for their children can reach out to their school administration to find out if their school participates in the program.
Those wishing to volunteer as drivers can contact food services manager Vino Muthukkaruppan at 604-463-8296, extension 103.
