families who can afford it pay for lunch. for those who can’t, the school will “quietly pay that fee,” she said.
until this year, the school was able to provide a breakfast for children coming to school hungry.
but then the number of families needing help with lunch increased while funding sources fell. to continue serving lunch to everyone, the breakfast program was cancelled.
“we provided a healthy breakfast because we have some families with complex needs where kids were arriving here without breakfast. but we haven’t been able to get that going this year because we have so many families asking for support to cover lunch,” she said.
the school’s food coordinator, alana strom, said families believing “it would be cheaper” have moved into the area since the pandemic.
but some are finding it difficult to get work in a region where many jobs are seasonal or pay minimum wage, strom explained.
mcallister has been a principal in other rural schools, but was surprised at the level of need in crawford bay, which only has one small grocery store.
“there were some industries that have left the area. with housing prices, quite a few families are living in trailers or transient housing,” she said.