B2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Feeding people comes down
to a lot of volunteer effort

A RESTAURANT owner has soup left over at the end of
every day and wants it put to good use.

A mother who needs milk for her child finds out there
is no program in Terrace to provide it.

Welcome to the Community Response to Hungry
Kids committee, a loose-knit group consisting of repre-
sentatives from a variety of community organizations.

“We're passionate about what we do,” says Darlene
Westerman of The Family Place, one of the founding
sponsors of the committee.

Although the committee has a goal of addressing
long-term issues surrounding children, their. families and
hunger, there’s more immediate work underway.

It consists of pulling together the threads of what is
being done to feed hungry children, identifying the gaps
and then doing the job. :

One solid success story is the Good Food Box pro-
gram in which purchasers pay $15 for a box containing
fruits and vegetables.

The food is bought al wholesale prices, meaning that
a purchaser is getting at least double the $15 in quantity,
says Westerman.

The Kalum Horseshoe Community Schools Society, a
member of the committee, received a $750 grant to fi-
nance a breakfast program at Clarence Michiel Elemen-
tary School.

And there’s $6,000 from the Ksan House Society, an-
other committee member.

The money came from a bingo grant and is being al-
located by Ksan upon recommendations of the commit-
tee.

A portion has already gone out to a Skeena Junior
Secondary Schoo! lunch program.

Finding out what is going on, what is not going on
and working to provide food takes an extraordinary
amount of volunteer labour, says Westerman.

“To draw everything together, we need volunteers,”
said Westerman. “But we also need leadership in those

volunteer roles, We need
people to take it and run
with it.”

All told the committee has
brought in just under
$10,000 for direct food aid
and received several other
smaller grants for a co-ordi-
nator and expenses to get
the Good Food Box off the
ground.

In-kind donations have
beefed up the direct mon-
etary contributions.

It’s not a lot of money
given the level of hunger in
the community and the
number of children that are
affected, says Westerman,
“We had one school that
was interested in a breakfast program and we thought
there would be five to 10 children a day, perhaps up to
30,” she said.

“But when we went to the school and met with the
teachers, each one could identify four to five kids in
each class and ‘that worked out to 70 kids that would or
could need food,”

“That’s the moment we started to panic at the depth
and breadth of what was going on. This was in a school
of 250 kids,” said Westerman.

Concern about child hunger grew when the economy
took a downturn here several years ago. It’s now acce-
lerated as the impacts of provincial cuts to social ser-
vices programs take hold,

“There would be hungry people without those cuts,
Now there’s just more,” said Westerman.

“We're finding families who may have been able to
manage before, just can't any longer.”

Dariene Westerman

National Jewish group extends
help to hungry local students

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HUNGRY STUDENTS at
Clarence Michiel Elemen-
tary School are enjoying
breakfast thanks to a Jew-
ish relief society based in

accepting donations from_
Jewish people who, when
planning a celebration in-
volving food, dedicate a
percenlage of what they

“It's a voluntary tax,”

‘ said Burke.

Mazon also sells cards,

- such as those celebrating
‘the Jewish holiday of

“OF the groups applying
to us from B.C., all say in
their applications that B.C.
is experiencing a terrible
economic time right now,”

will spend to those less:
fortunate.

Toronto.

Mazon Canada’s $750
grant provides a nutritious
breakfast for at least 12
and sometimes more stu-
dents each morning.

The program began
April 1 and school princi-
pal Christine Foster hopes
itll last until the end of
the school year.

“Students ‘arrive at 8:30 °°"
a.m. and stay until 9 am.
It’s run by volunteers and.
we could always use more
help,” explained Foster.

The menu is designed
by a community nutrition-
ist and ensures each stu-
dent receives one-third of
the food groups they need
each day, she added.

“Today it was toast,
whole-wheat, with un-
sweetened fruit juice, To-
morrow it’s waffles.”

“There are good
spinoffs,” said Foster of
the response to the num-
bers of hungry children she
said has grown because of
the economic situation of
the past several years.

Mazon Canada’s $750
grant came via an applica-
tion made by the Kalum
Horseshoe Community
Schools Society, a group
of parents and others.

It's not the only local
group helped by Mazon
Canada, which takes its
name from the Hebrew.
word for food, nourishment *
and sustenance.

The Terrace Anti Pov-
erty Group Sociely has for
several years received a
Mazon grant, the latest
being $950, to help with
its community garden pro-
ject, says society exec-

-

¥

a oothbrushes

utive director Tanya Gau-

i Passover.

. A broad smile is a preat advertisement for good dental’

health. Maybe that’s why a Celebration of the Smile is
‘the theme chosen by the Canadian Dental Association to.
promote Dental Health Month in April.»

_ This: year, Canada’s 16,000 dentists are highlighting a
~-Five-Point -Prevention” Plan -to 2 :
_Maintaina healthysmile. ——

First, don’t rush the brush. Brush
ur:teeth carefully, at least once’
every 24 hours. Most of us do that
for long enough?

loss «daily. Dental ‘floss reaches

* said Burke,

oo

~. Teading cause of adult tooth

to.3

vin.

The gardens provide
‘lower income people or
those who don’t have gar-
dening space of their own
the opportunity to enjoy
their own in-season pro-
duce.

The PACES program for
teen moms and their child-
ren connected to Caledo-
nia Secondary School also
benefits from a Mazon
grant to provide breakfasts.

Mazon began in 1986
as the Jewish community’s
response to hunger in Ca-
nada, says Lori Burke, one
of two part time. employ-
ees in its Toronto head of-
fice.

“Our philosophy is, as a
community, to help feed
the hungry,” said Burke.

It disperses between
$450,000 and $500,000 a
year to groups across Ca-
nada.

Mazon raises money by

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