No child should ever go hungry, especially not in our own community. Children are our future and need full bellies to be able to learn their best in school. Rick’s Heart Foundation is proudly sponsoring
L.A. Matheson Secondary School in Surrey, BC by sponsoring we are providing 30 kids with backpacks full of food to get them through the weekend. The Foundation also supplies shipping to Backpack Buddies, to help reach more schools.
Learn how you can get involved at bottom of story!
BC has the highest child poverty rate of any province in Canada
Everyday, tens of thousands of children are going hungry in our communities. Today, the average two-parent, only child, family lives on less than $19,000 per year. With rent, basic living expenses and childcare costs all increasing ten- and twenty-fold in the last two decades, a crisis has emerged for families in our communities.
Basic needs like food, shelter and warmth are now in direct competition with one another. Families are often forced to make trade-offs. Forego dinners this week to pay rent. Skip perishable items so the fridge can be unplugged and the electricity bill kept low. The list goes on.
This is why Backpack buddies are so crucial for our communities’ children and why Rick’s Heart Foundation has decided to become a supporter. To learn more about this amazing organization visit Backpack Buddies.
Hi Community,
I have to be honest with you – I never realized the extent of child hunger here in BC. I first learned about it back in 2012 by speaking with outreach workers and teachers. They shared stories about how they would store food in their desks to feed kids on Monday morning, paid for out of their own pockets.
20% of children in BC do not know where their next meal is coming from. To give this some context, the average Grade 4 classroom in our province has 23 students. That means approximately 4 students in EVERY classroom leave at the end of the day uncertain if they will have dinner that night. These kids are no more than 9 or 10, yet they already know the pain of an empty stomach and the anxiety of struggling with hunger.
You and I both agree that’s too much for a young child to bear, and together, we can do something about it. That’s why 19 new recipient schools were added to Backpack Buddies’ Friday delivery route this year. We’re now feeding an additional 292 children (1,293 total) in communities across Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. This holiday season, we need your help to reach them.
There are children in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Surrey and in cities on Vancouver Island that are waiting for your help – you can even pick which neighbourhood you’d like to reach. Will you consider supporting a hungry child today?
All it takes is $10 to provide a child in need with enough meals and snacks to keep them fed over the weekend. $360 supports one child for the entire school year. When you ensure a child has enough to eat over the weekend, you fuel their learning, health and personal well-being.
You can support a hungry child in the neighbourhood of your choice here: www.backpackbuddies.ca/neighbourhood
Please give now to provide a weekend, a month, a semester or an entire school year of hearty weekends to a child in need today.
With gratitude,
Emily-anne King
Vice-President & Co-Founder of Backpack Buddies
