This year has seen a spike in the numbers of children arriving hungry.
NELSON — Blewett Elementary is built on a mountain in a rural community of the same name just outside of Nelson.
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It might be a small community school — just 101 students — but its problems with hungry children aren’t minor. About a third of student each day do not have enough to eat or have nothing at all, says principal Jordon Konken.
His financial resources for feeding them are insufficient and he needs volunteer help to buy food and prepare a hot meal for when children arrive.
“We try to have something available in the morning that’s warm and ready to go, and so a lot of kids who would have gone through the day without asking for food — when they see or smell the food — they let us know they are hungry,” he said.
“One of our teachers heard a couple of his kids say they were used to being hungry. That’s really worrisome when we hear that. We have to do something about it because if that’s becoming somewhat normal, it’s just not right.
“So we want to provide them with a healthy breakfast, snacks during the day, and a hot lunch.”
To do this, he is asking The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign for $5,000, which will supplement the $3,000 he receives from the government’s Feeding Futures program.
Konken said the school doesn’t have the staffing it had last year when someone was available to shop for groceries and prepare breakfast. So now it’s become an ad hoc job done by himself and other staff — “whoever has time to put something together here and there.”
Although sometimes it doesn’t work out because “we just don’t have the manpower” and they run out of food.
With Adopt-A-School money, the school would be able to order hot lunches from a local grocery store — something the Feeding Futures program doesn’t allow.
This year has seen a spike in the numbers of children arriving hungry.
“It’s about 10 per cent more. We have a range of needs in the school. We have families who are well-established and have a generational background in the community, and transient families who have moved out of the city or from back east to rent in a rural area because it’s more affordable,” said Konken.
“Nelson is a very expensive town. Our vacancy rate is almost zero. I remember hearing on CBC Radio a few years back our mayor saying, ‘If you are thinking of moving to Nelson and you don’t have a place to live or a job — don’t come’.”
But they have come anyway.
The same shift has happened in other parts of the province where families have migrated to rural areas searching for less-expensive accommodation.
As well as food in school, Konken wants to be able to put together emergency grocery bags when families find themselves without food at home. He is organizing food hampers to get some families through Christmas when their children will be without access to food at school.
Where will he get the money from?
“Wherever I can. A parent has donated $300. We’re doing a Christmas concert and I’ll have a donation jar at the door.”
And he needs money to buy clothes and boots for some children at school inadequately dressed.
“The winter’s the worst time. We are on a mountain and the weather changes by the hour. Sometimes it goes from rain, to freezing rain, to snow and back again, and some kids don’t have snow pants or snow gloves,” Konken explained.
“They need winter jackets. We try to have something on hand they can borrow, or we can give out to families if they need it.
“But proper winter jackets are a big one. They are expensive and kids outgrow them so fast. I can’t imagine what it’s like for a single mom who lives out here and is trying to afford that clothing.”