The Children’s Foundation of Guelph Wellington held Wellington County’s Live Free Breakfast at St. Joseph Catholic School in Fergus to celebrate the Help Kids Live Free From Hunger campaign earlier this week.
“We live in a country where food should always be available to anyone and it’s hard when you hear kids don’t have anything to eat,” said Grade 8 student Maddie Kelly at the Feb. 27 event.
That’s where the Food and Friends program comes in. The Children’s Foundation initiative supports 105 student nutrition programs across Wellington County, Dufferin County and Guelph, said Children’s Foundation student nutrition manager Bobbie Turner.
That’s more than 18,000 students.
“What we do is we feed them a healthy breakfast, morning meal, snack or lunch … just so that they can better focus in school,” Turner said.
“We know that often times when children or youth are hungry they lack that focus and don’t do as well as maybe other students in school.”
Kelly said she uses the St. Joseph snack program on mornings when she doesn’t have time to eat breakfast.
“I like to get every last bit of sleep I can before I have to come to school, but it’s natural, everyone wants to get as much sleep as possible,” Kelly said.
“I know my friends feel this way and I feel this way so it’s really nice to come to school and have something to eat when you don’t have anything to eat when you first get up.”
That’s one of the benefits of the Food and Friends nutrition programs: every student can participate.
“We don’t always know what the face of hunger looks like,” said school principal Todd Goodwin.
“It doesn’t stand out like walking into school in a cast after a Sports injury.
“We don’t all realize the difficulty in admitting that we may not have enough to eat at home because of the dignity and pride that we as human beings so desperately try to hang onto when we can’t make ends meet, especially when it affects our children.”
Kelly said that based on her experiences and conversations at school, some students don’t feel they have the confidence to tell someone they don’t have enough food at home.
“At least when we have snacks … kids can come to school and they can grab an apple and they won’t be judged,” she said.
“Because I think the reason people don’t speak out about why they’re hungry is because they feel like they’re going to be judged.”
On March 2, Live Free Day, students across the Wellington Catholic District School Board and the Upper Grand District School Board will be participating in the Live Free Campaign, a fundraiser for each individual school’s Food and Friends program.
“So the idea is we ask participants … to give something up for the day,” Turner said. “So they have to think of something that they maybe take for granted.”
Students and staff are encouraged to give up that item for the entire day on March 2 and donate a toonie to the school’s Food and Friends program.
“Every dollar raised at each of our school programs stays within that school,” Turner said.
For more information about the Food and Friend program visit www.childrensfoundation.org/what-we-do/food-friends.
