East- side community centres continue to buzz with activity

Kids on Vancouver’s east side continued to keep busy in community centres as the B. C. teachers’ strike entered its second day Tuesday.

At Strathcona Community Centre, dozens of parents arrived early with little ones in need of healthy food, supervision and playtime.

Among them was Ammanda Barber and her five- year- old daughter.

Having only learned of the strike on the weekend, Barber decided the centre would be a good place for her child.

Barber added she’s disabled and has another child at home.

To help parents like Barber cope, Strathcona Community Centre stretched the hours of its regular breakfast program and offered a safe place for kids, including supervised gym use, and arts and crafts projects.

Judging by the amount of breakfasts served by 10 a. m., centre staff estimated about 200 kids were there Tuesday, said Jane Newton- Moss, breakfast program coordinator. That’s about twice as many as Monday.

“We’re able to respond fairly quickly,” she said, after serving tofu breakfast sandwiches, eggs, bagels, toast, and fruit.

Strathcona Community Centre regularly feeds between 90 and 150 children daily and offers meals on weekends and holidays through a backpack lunch program, said Newton- Moss, adding the centre welcomes parents for breakfast, too, as a way to ease their stress.

A team of about 10 paid staff and several more volunteers supervised the day’s activities, said Liza Tam, the centre’s family programmer.“It’s busier today,” she said.

So far the community centre association has been able to handle the extra costs, she added. But expenses could rise if the strike continues and spring break is coming up fast.

At Ray- Cam Community Centre on East Hastings, 200 kids attended Monday and Tuesday. Extra staff were on hand to help supervise while children played sports in the gym, used computers and did arts and crafts.

Ray- Cam staff have estimated it could cost up to $ 18,000 to run the centre’s programs over the three strike days this week.

Brown said if the strike goes on for too long, it will be hard to keep up with the demand.

“Our budget won’t stretch,” she said. “It’s really a big drain on us.”

WAYNE LEIDENFROST/ PNG Lisa Tang and daughter Valentina Huang take advantage of the Strathcona Community Centre child care program in Vancouver Tuesday, the second day of a three- day teachers’ strike across B. C.