Between 50 and 75 volunteers are needed to help ensure students living in need have some food to get them through the weekends this summer.
Organizers of the student-driven Weekend Fuelbag program are desperate for help on Sunday afternoon, to pack some 80 or so large bags of food.
“More hands make light work,” said Fuelbag organizer and founder Brady Lumsden. “Otherwise, if we don’t get a lot of people, it will just take more time.”
He’s calling for help to put food packages together for students to take home for the summer break. That means there will be enough food and snacks for the eight weekends.
Since 2015 a student-driven food program, aimed at helping hungry high school and middle school kids in Langley, has been providing these weekend food packs that each contain two breakfasts, two lunches, drinks, and snacks.
While these students are typically being provided meals through some of the breakfast, lunch, or snack programs operating in different schools around the district, this initiative is aimed at providing for those same kids when they’re out of class on the weekends.
Fuelbag was started by a trio of Walnut Grove Secondary students, and has since expanded to feed students at all nine of the high and middle schools in the district. At present, there’s about 80 kids receiving weekly packs, Lumsden explained.
The food is currently bought at a discount from Save-On-Foods, the items delivered to each of the nine schools, then packaged up by leadership classes and distributed to kids in need through the school counsellors or youth care workers.
For this big project, however, Lumsden said he and some friends are undertaking a major shopping spree today, between a number of different merchants. And all of the food must then be sorted and repackaged for the kids on Sunday, June 10, at 1 p.m. at R.E. Mountain Secondary, 7755 202A St. in Langley.
People can call or text Lumsden, if they’re interested in helping out. He can be reached at 604-716-7871. Otherwise, he hopes people will just show up and pitch in what time they have available. Lumsden is anxious for more people to learn about Weekend Fuelbag, and consider getting involved.
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