B.C. kids have a greater risk of facing hunger in the summer
With summer vacation now well underway for kids across B.C., an organization is seeking to highlight an unfortunate and often overlooked aspect of the break: hunger.
Throughout the school year, many kids get access to food through various programs like the Province’s Feeding Futures initiative. But once summer begins, these programs cease.
Trisha Dulku, the strategic initiatives manager with United Way BC, said that the regular school year provides kids with much more than education.
“It gives them a sense of routine, access to trusted adults, teachers and leaders. But also one of the key things that kids and families access through the school year are nutritious meals and snacks through the school food programs,” she said.
“When the school bell rings in June, and school is over, those supports basically virtually disappear overnight.”
According to Food Banks BC, nearly one-third of food bank visitors are kids. Dulku pointed out that we are in a time when grocery prices and the general cost of living have escalated.
Dulku said that food insecurity “doesn’t always look the way that people imagine.”
“There are a lot of families that are doing everything right, you know, they’re working, they’re making sure that they’re able to pay some of those essential bills. But in an environment and a time where there are these rising costs, many families experience food insecurity because they just cannot make their budgets stretch far enough.”
She said they then see the effects of not only skipped meals, but also of buying less nutritious food that might be more affordable, or “really holding on to that anxiety and worry every day about how you’ll be able to get a healthy meal.”
“Oftentimes, it’s the less nutritious food, the unhealthy foods that are more affordable, but that’s not what’s going to help a kid grow.”
This is why United Way BC runs a summer camp called School’s Out Summer, a free or extremely low-cost program to support kids. It operates in 22 sites across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, supporting over 1,200 kids. Dulku said that school districts often refer kids to United Way for registration and enrollment.
Each camp varies in activities and community needs. For example, some might focus on English language learning and others might focus more on social development and community engagement. But every program has three anchors: responsible adult role models, developmentally appropriate activities and new experiences, and food.
“We hear all the time from teachers and educators that they can tell the difference between those kids who have been able to have a quality summer experience and those who maybe were just at home,” she said. “Because they’re so lethargic and exhausted from missing meals and not having that quality summer experience.”