Money is important, but so are volunteers
One Surrey business lets staff serve breakfast at a local school on company time
It’s 7:30 a.m. — barely light out — and Surrey principal Shauna Ross is talking about the positive effects of feeding breakfast to children who need it.
She’s in early and so are the volunteers making breakfast in a small kitchen at Hyland Elementary.
It’s not just the food, she said, although some undoubtedly require it as they are coming in hungry, but it’s the friendships, the social connections, the relieving of the anxiety hunger brings.
Ross has her heart lightened when she sees smiling, content and happy children playing together on the floor of the lunchroom after breakfast.
“It changes the whole day for them,” she said.
In the last 18 months, she’s noticed more children needing breakfast and lunch from the school.
Students are expected to bring lunch, but if they are unable, Ross will make them a sandwich.
“But some children are responsible for making their own lunch at home. I’ve had a Grade 1 child show up with a full loaf of bread, a jar of jam and a knife. So food’s not the problem there, it’s just ...”
That breakfast is being served to as many as 20 children a day in this Newton-area school is a result of The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign, said Liane Ricou, business development manager of the Surrey School District.
Which is news to everyone associated with Adopt-A-School because a check of the Surrey schools receiving help shows no sign of Hyland Elementary.
That’s true, Ricou said, but the breakfast program is the result of an anonymous donor coming forward two years ago after reading that another North Surrey school, David Brankin Elementary, desperately needed help to feed impoverished children. That school, however, ended up being cared for by the Vancouver law firm Nathanson, Schachter & Thompson, so Ricou asked the donor to consider adopting Hyland — a school with similar needs — and he consented.
Even with the donation (and some money from a local Lions Club), Ross could provide breakfast only three days a week last year due to a lack of volunteers.
This year, as a result of The Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign, there has been a big increase in the number of companies and individuals offering to volunteer their services to needy schools, Ricou said.
“The companies are coming to us directly from Adopt-A-School or because they have heard about AAS. We have seen a real increase in the number of inquiries about volunteering and it’s all due to the campaign,” Ricou said.
Surrey has 50 schools struggling to feed and clothe children, so there’s no lack of opportunities.
One company, Westland Insurance Group, has taken it to the next level and is paying staff to volunteer if they need time off work.
Ten volunteers, two a day, from Westland are at Hyland and breakfast is now being served five days a week.
Insurance salesman Kyle Tye has been at the school since September working Tuesdays.
“It’s nice the company is giving me the flexibility to use company time to volunteer. I grew up here and to have the opportunity to give back is a wonderful experience,” Tye said.
It was his colleague Beige Osland’s first day and the pair helped volunteer Raj Gill, who comes in each day before starting work in a daycare.
Westland is a Surrey-based insurance brokerage with 700 employees and offices in B.C. and Alberta. Last year, CEO Matt Wubs read a Vancouver Sun article regarding the plight of impoverished children and how schools were struggling to feed and care for them.
“It really struck a chord with me so I talked to my wife as we had been trying to be a bit more proactive about our personal charitable giving, not just responding every year in December,” Wubs said.
He contacted Ricou and before long they adopted Betty Huff Elementary, another school in need of help, and committed $20,000 a year to provide breakfast and after-school programs there.
It was while he was visiting Betty Huff he realized there was a need not just for money but for volunteers.
“I mentioned this to my brother (the brothers are co-CEOs) and we had a long chat about it and that’s where we realized this was a great opportunity to engage our staff,” Wubs said. “As an organization we feel we have a corporate responsibility to give back. We are in a lot of small communities and we’ve tried unofficially to encourage our staff that if they feel passionate about something to get involved.”
Wubs said people want to help, but not everyone has a flexible job.
“They work from 9-to-5 then go home and they have kids who need to go to sports and other responsibilities and it prevents them,” he said.
“We saw an opportunity to allow our staff to volunteer with a little bit of it on their time, but mostly on corporate time,” he said. “Given the number of people in the company, we knew there would be those who’d volunteer if we created an environment that would allow it. So now they can do it on our dime, not their own.”
Right now the effort is confined to Surrey and 20 employees are volunteering in a number of schools, Wubs said. If they arrive late to work or need time off in the afternoon because of volunteering their pay won’t be affected.
“Once we get the logistics worked out we want to expand in Delta, Langley and Abbotsford. We want our staff to be aware that we want to give back to the communities that have done well for us.”
Westland Insurance didn’t stop there. The company has committed $150,000 to the school district’s Clubhouse 36 program, an after-school program designed to keep at-risk children safe.
“I don’t think I’m a naive person,” Wubs said. “But I was stunned to see how much need there is.
“It’s incredible when you see it on the ground and I take my hat off to you guys for what you are doing in waking people up.”