forbes is asking the vancouver sun’s adopt-a-school campaign for $6,000 to supplement the $1,500 he received from the provincial feeding futures program so he can ensure children get sufficient food.
“there’s a lot of need for additional support for food, so that’s why i want to offer breakfast to everyone in the building,” said forbes. “but i was hoping to branch out to providing lunch and snacks as well.”
he is trying to spin out the government money serving non-sugar cereal and milk for breakfast, but he wants to be able to offer something more substantial.
“last year, we had a bigger budget, and we’d have yogurt and oatmeal, lots more fruit — more options,” he explained.
“i want to get a cooking program going where the older kids will provide meals for the whole school, so this would be part of their educational day along with numeracy and literacy.
“it would be something positive for the school and ensure all mouths are fed that need feeding.”
with adopt-a-school money he could have grade 7 students “prepare something more substantial … something more creative than a bowl of cereal.”
last year, he used money from the one-time provincial government affordability fund to help some families buy such things as toilet paper and other necessities when the need arose.