The Williams Lake Daybreak Rotary Club will once again be providing backpacks filled with food for hungry school children over the weekend.
“I’m very excited. This is an amazing program. We are feeding 43 kids this year again. That’s what we finished with last year and that’s where we’re starting this year,” says chair of the Starfish Pack Program, Lori Macala.
“We started with 12 backpacks, 6 each at two different schools and now we’ve expanded to 43 at three different schools and looking to add a fourth. The need is there and it’s going to continue….All it takes is more money.”
Macala says $525 feeds one child for the entire school year, and that the best way to get involved is by donating funds to the Child Development Centre which they have partnered with because they can write tax receipts.
She says another option is to help volunteer to pack food, pick up food, or deliver the backpacks once a week.
This marks the second year of the Starfish Pack Program in Williams Lake which is currently offered at Marie Sharpe, Cataline, and Chilcotin Road, with Nesika Elementary expressing interest.
“From what we’ve heard from teachers and the principals is that it’s made an amazing difference,” says Macala.
“A lot of these kids can have breakfast and lunch at school. They go home Friday night and don’t eat again until they come back again on Monday morning, and having that backpack full of food which often feeds the entire family has made a huge difference in their learning, in their attention span-their lives have changed because they’re getting fed.”