On October 31st, Sheila Morrison, one of the two Breakfast Club coordinators at Verdun Elementary, came to church to report on what is happening in this third school year of the pandemic.
The model has changed quite a bit from the days when between 40 and 75 kids would sit at tables in the Mission eating food served directly from the kitchen. Last year, with the introduction of “classroom bubbles”, it became clear that the only way to feed the “breakfast club kids” was to send their (pre-packaged) meals in bins to their classrooms. Sheila and Sue (Purcell, the other coordinator) immediately recognized the awkwardness of feeding only certain children; they asked Breakfast Clubs of Canada if it would be possible to expand the program to cover all 200+ students at the school, and the answer was yes! As you will see in Sheila’s report below, that model has continued into this school year.
We were able to present Sheila with quite a few dish towels we’d collected, as she said the program was in need, including a large number of colourful dish cloths crocheted by our own Marge Cooper-White. What a wonderful example of how, as a community, we have still managed to reach out to each other even in a pandemic!
Breakfast Club Report, October 31, 2021
We prepare bins every morning for all 16 classrooms in Verdun Elementary School, for a total of about 220 children. Teachers and/or the children come to the kitchen and pick up their bin and take it to class.
We get an order from Breakfast Club every 2 weeks based on our ordering the week before. We try to make it as appealing to the children as possible, we like to make colourful bins. We make bagels and cheese for them once a week and toast the next. We also receive WOW butter (substitute for peanut butter and jam). They love their fruit. That is why, as Dennis mentioned last week, we have set up a deal with the new fruit store on the corner of Desmarchais and Verdun ave. We just had bananas delivered this past Tuesday and the kids loved them.
When we were at the mission, we were only feeding approximately 40 children, whose families were supposed to pay, but it was a hit or a miss at times. Children who came on busses would arrive too late to eat in the Mission so we would prepare bags for them to eat in their classrooms. We had pancakes, scrambled eggs, eggos, (some were donated by Southwest). We even would have from time to time casseroles with sausage, egg etc. When there was a special occasion such as Easter or Christmas we would serve something applicable with the occasion.
It was brought to my attention a short while ago that the Breakfast Club of Canada is hopeful the Liberal government will follow through on a campaign promise and create a national food program for students faced with food insecurity. Daniel Germain, Breakfast Club of Canada founder and National School Food Program Advisory Committee Chair, says funding could be on the way, as the re-elected Trudeau government promised a five-year billion-dollar investment.
“A re-elected Liberal government will work with our provincial, territorial, municipal, Indigenous partners, and stakeholders to develop a National School Food Policy and work towards a national school nutritious meal program with a $1 billion investment over five years,” states the Liberal Party of Canada platform, which formed a minority government in September.
So we all look forward to a better year ahead for our children’s stomachs!
Respectfully submitted,
Sheila Morrison
Just a few of Marge’s dish cloths.