“The cost of necessities are often unattainable for some families and we want to help. This child needs glasses. It’s not a whim.”
QUALICUM BEACH — This community with its sweeping views of Georgia Strait, its sandy beaches and pastoral quiet has long been regarded as a retirement haven for those no longer enamoured with city life.
However, times are changing and the cost of living crisis fuelled in part by higher rents has families moving here to escape pricier accommodations in places such as Victoria.
“We were always considered a retirement community but we have more people moving here to find less expensive places to live, although it’s still not cheap,” said Lynda Burton, the child and youth care worker at Kwalikum Secondary School.
She said the school is in a high-income area surrounded by low-income areas.
This disparity in financial resources between families is apparent in the makeup of the school’s population with some families now experiencing economic difficulties they likely hadn’t before.
And she said the differences in means “adds to the psychological impacts felt by students living in low-income situations.”
To lessen the effects of all this, Burton is asking The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign for $5,000 to ease the strain on families struggling to pay rent and buy food who are unable to provide their children with basic necessities. These could be clothes, running shoes, laundry detergent or such things as eye glasses for a student whose mother doesn’t have money to buy them.
“The cost of necessities are often unattainable for some families and we want to help. This child needs glasses. It’s not a whim.”
The school has 824 students and is well-supported by the community, said Burton, who provided a list of the help the school gets from local organizations that provide volunteers and food.
“One of the organizations will bring in boxes of food from the local supermarket and I’ll say to some kids, ‘Come see me’ and they know what I mean. I’ll have blocks of cheese or other good stuff to put in their backpacks to take home,” she said.
They also have a backpack program that provides families with food for weekends.
Lunch is provided by the provincial government but breakfast is provided by volunteers from a local church who come in three days a week with peanut butter, bagels and cream cheese.
On the remaining days yogurt and fruit are set out by the school’s lunch staff.
The school has its own thrift store where students can help themselves to clothing and footwear donated by teachers whose children have outgrown the items or by the local Rotary Club.
And there are shelves containing donated school supplies and tinned food for them to take.
But there are times when what’s necessary for a student isn’t available.
“Sometimes when kids need clothes we can’t provide because nothing fits or it’s a shoe size we don’t have,” she explained. “Our school helps kids get part-time jobs but they need clothes — usually black pants and a collared shirt.”
Such jobs help low-income families and buying pants and a shirt for a student — if there was nothing available — would be a good investment, said Burton.
Hundreds of schools are asking for help to feed and clothe children.
The AAS program has sent $14 million to schools since 2011. No administration expenses are deducted from donations.
How to donate
2. PHONE: To pay by credit card, call 604-813-8673.