For the second school year in a row, 50 hungry kids from three Aldergrove elementary and middle schools will benefit on weekends from the Aldergrove Rotary Starfish Backpack Program.
While in-school breakfast and lunch programs provide a basic level of food security during the school week for some students, during weekends many of the children who rely on those school programs go without eating until they return to school on Monday morning. Aldergrove Starfish Backpacks fill their weekend need.
Youth Care Worker Lindsay Romas has seen firsthand how the Aldergrove Starfish Program benefits the students at Shortreed Elementary.
“They come to school Monday morning less stressed, calmer,” she says. “Because they didn’t spend the weekend hungry, they are more relaxed and able to learn.”
Aldergrove Rotary Starfish Backpacks, which provide two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners and snacks, is 100 per cent community funded. At a cost of $525 per child for the school year, groceries are provided at cost from the Otter Co-Op and the Aldergrove Save-On Foods.
“We are so grateful to the many supporters whose contributions have made it possible to continue this very necessary program,” said Jack Nicholson, president of the Aldergrove Rotary Club, the organization that spearheads the Aldergrove Starfish Pack.
The Starfish Backpack Program started in a single school in Abbotsford in the spring of 2013 and has grown to over a dozen B.C. communities. Starfish Packs will be delivered this school year in Abbotsford, Aldergrove, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Delta, Langley, Mission, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, Vernon and Williams Lake. All local donations remain in the communities where they are made.
To find out more and/or make a donation, go to www.aldergrovestarfish.ca