A program that helped feed children in need in the community will be ending come December.
The Starfish Pack Program, a program that provided meals over the weekends to school children who might otherwise go hungry, will have its final distribution on Dec. 20.
Each week, volunteers would fill backpacks with two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, and snacks, and then deliver them to local schools for the students to take home on the weekend.
It was a program that was brought to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows by the MeadowRidge Rotary Club eight years ago.
Rotary member and coordinator of the Starfish Pack Program for the community, Ineke Boekhorst, said her heart is broken.
"It hasn't always been easy to keep going; financially it has been a huge challenge," she explained about the decision to shut the program down.
They tried to encourage other local organizations to continue the program, but unfortunately, said Boekhorst, none are in a position to take over such a huge financial responsibility either.
The need in the community grew quickly for the program.
When the program first started, Boekhorst noted, they handed out five backpacks filled with food to students at one elementary school.
Very quickly, he said, the number increased to 50 backpacks, then 90, 125, 200, 240, to finally 320 Starfish packs at 24 local schools every week.
The cost per backpack for a regular weekend was $15 each, $21 each for a long weekend – which worked out to be $575 per student per school year.
"The MeadowRidge Rotary Club couldn't have done it without the financial support of our many individual donors, many local businesses and organizations, which kept us going for all these years," said Boekhorst, thanking the community as a whole for their support and donations.
"So many volunteers, not only Rotarians, have helped us every week with the purchasing of groceries, packing and delivering of the Starfish Packs...... they too are very sad to see the program end," she said.
Boekhorst said they will no longer be collecting any further funding for the Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Starfish Program through Canada Helps or any other funding organization.
She is advising those who currently donate regularly to change their monthly contribution commitment and is encouraging donors to redirect their future donations to the Friends in Need Food Bank and their School Meals and Snack Program.
For more information about the program contact Aimee Robson at: adminassistant@friendsneedfood.com.
The Starfish Pack Program continues to operate in many communities across the province.
