Backpacks take bite out of childhood hunger on weekends
Every Thursday morning Susan Fox gives hungry children in Vancouver’s inner- city schools a reason to smile.
While breakfast and hot lunch programs keep students well- fed during school days, child poverty ensures many are hungry over the weekend. Fox fills this nutritional gap by giving needy kids backpacks filled with food for them to take home every Friday.
The process begins in a small but well- lit basement- level room at Florence Nightingale elementary. Each backpack is filled with items such as oatmeal packets, pasta, granola bars, instant noodles, bread and fruit. Food donations arrive on Wednesday afternoon and by 8: 30 a. m. the next day, Fox and volunteers pack the treats. The types of food are a relative constant. Only flavours might change from week to week.
“It’s like a safety blanket for the kids,” Fox said. “They know they’ll be taking a backpack home every week and they know [ what’s] inside.”
She founded the Vancouver branch of Blessings in a Backpack, a U. S.based food distribution charity, a year and half ago. The program aims to combat child hunger. Fox fed the first 50 students out of her own pocket in 2011. The original 50 recipients grew to 116 within a year and there is enough money this year to feed an additional 194. Fox committed $ 5,000 each year for five years to the chapter after her research uncovered the state of child poverty in British Columbia.
“I was dumbfounded when I learned that a huge number of kids in B. C. live under the poverty line,” she said.
Fox works part- time at the B. C. Children’s Hospital, where she is a medical office assistant in a critical care unit.
She sets aside every Thursday morning and several hours every week to coordinate the program, network with potential donors, and assist with filling backpacks — the latter because she wants to maintain a hands- on role.
B. C. has the second- highest rate of child poverty in Canada. Poverty among the province’s youngest citizens has consistently stood above the national average over the past decade, according to the 2011 Child Poverty Report Card. The study, created by First Call: B. C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, found that 16.4 per cent of B. C. children live in needy circumstances compared to the Canadawide rate of 14 per cent.
“It makes me sick,” Fox said. “It’s astonishing how many people don’t know what’s happening in our own backyard.”
Fox was inspired to bring Blessings in a Backpack to Vancouver when she heard and read about the parent organization in the United States. American philanthropist Stan Curtis created Blessings in 2004 and works with celebrity endorsers like Hilary Duff to create awareness of and to combat child hunger. Although Blessings’ Canadian pilot program began in 2008 in Toronto, the Vancouver chapter represents the charity’s first foray into the Lower Mainland. Fox said the response she received from individual and corporate donors has been heartening.
“We had a bat mitzvah girl who, instead of keeping the money for herself, gave every cent she got to Blessings,” she said. “This 12- year- old girl helped sponsor 24 kids for three years in a row.”
In addition to money, Fox said food donations are always welcome. Every food contribution and dollar received by Blessings goes toward the program. She refuses to print business cards or pamphlets, insisting there be no overhead costs.
“It’s remarkable that she’s one woman who, through her own individual efforts, raised enough money to feed [ the initial 50] kids,” said Jenny Chin Peterson, the principal at Florence Nightingale elementary and Mount Pleasant elementary. Both schools, along with Thunderbird elementary, are among the 14 inner- city schools served by Blessings. Fox hopes to raise enough money in the future to extend coverage to the remaining 11.
Chin Peterson said the program has been a quiet boon for students and their parents. Children in need are identified through a combination of self- identification, where parents approach the schools requesting help, and through staff relationships with parents and their kids. School letters about the program are also sent out to promote Blessings in a Backpack.
Parent Lily Ann Davis is grateful for Fox’s work. Davis’s sons have been bringing backpacks home since February and she said Blessings goes a long way to alleviate food- related pressures on her family.
“It’s good for [ my sons], it makes them healthier,” said Davis. “They love it and I love it. It’s great for us because it helps us out. I have less to worry about.”