Poverty a growing concern in Guildford
Surrey neighbourhood home to many new immigrants, refugees and single parents
For the past three years, staff at Surrey’s Bonaccord elementary have been manning the barricades against a rising tide of poverty that’s beginning to overwhelm them.
This school of 530 students is in Guildford, an area in “transition,” says principal Jacob Sol — which is a way of saying this North Surrey neighbourhood contains substantially more poor families than in the past.
“Many of our students and families you would consider to be working poor. Mums and dads who both work — often one working a day shift, the other at night — and still can’t put enough food on the table,” Sol said.
Guildford provides the cheapest rental housing in the Lower Mainland and is home to many new immigrants, refugees and single-parent families.
The houses surrounding the school, which once served as single-family homes for the middle class, have since been broken up into suites and are now rentals, says the school’s child care worker, Nicole Curtis-Gill.
There’s a large public housing complex nearby that also provides low-income housing.
All of which has brought new levels of privation to the school — and the staff’s response has been nothing short of heroic.
They have fed, clothed, and assisted families. Three years ago they started their own breakfast program, coming in early to cook and serve food to children arriving hungry — all at their own expense. (Last year the school was designated inner city and made eligible for a funded breakfast, to which The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School program contributes.)
School counsellor Barbara Verner itemized some of the expenses staff have absorbed.
“They buy kids’ clothing, boots, shoes, food when they don’t bring any lunch, bus tickets, toiletries, lice kits and many other things,” said Verner, who admits to constantly putting a hand into her own pocket.
“All teachers do it. If you take someone to Quest Foods (a private store that sells food to needy families at cheap prices) and they have no money you have to help them.”
Curtis-Gill admits to playing the role of the shoe fairy.
“What do you do if you have a little kid showing up with holes in their shoes and socks soaking wet each day? You go out and buy them new shoes, leave them on their chair and the kid wears them. And nobody says anything.
“We have kids coming in with nothing to eat or mouldy bread for lunch. You can’t leave a child hungry.
“I only live five minutes away, so it’s nothing to go home and make something.”
But then, she says, “your husband comes home and wonders where all the food and bread has gone.”
Lately, demands on staff have become overwhelming and the stress of it can be immense, Verner says.
“We have a proud community and we know when people come in and say they have no food, they must be absolutely desperate,” she said.
“So we have a food drive and staff bring in food. But we get tired of begging all the time for help. We have a staff donation kitty in the office right now for Christmas hampers, but we don’t have enough money to meet the demand. I’m pretty good at squeezing a penny but if you don’t have any pennies to squeeze ...”
A corporate sponsor would bring relief and Verner is looking for a company to step forward.
She has applied to Adopt-A-School for help with Christmas hampers and for money to provide emergency food and clothing to impoverished families during the year.
She knows of families needing hampers, but can’t approach them because there isn’t money available.
“We’ve only got enough for five. The need is larger than that. I can guarantee before Christmas someone will be here with no food in the house and it would be nice to be able to give them $50 so they can go to Walmart and buy what they need.”
One mother broke down when Curtis-Gill told her she was getting a hamper.
“She was so stressed about Christmas she started crying. ‘You’ve just saved us,’ she said.”