A little while back our church had to shut down our food bank. Monday we decided to close our Sunday morning welcome spot. This was a place homeless and needy people could come and get a coffee and a snack on Sunday mornings. Unfortunately the people using the service were becoming to violent with our volunteers, and each other. This morning we teamed up with one of the elementary schools in the area, and will be servicing breakfast and lunch to all children from that school that are in need of breakfast and or lunch. This is not new to Winnipeg, as there are a few schools in Winnipeg running this program. It's amazing how many children go to school each day without breakfast or skip lunch.
Schools get grants to run such programs.
Great first day at the school. 9 kids to the early morning program. 33 in total for breakfast. Not serving junk like pop tarts or gondola bars. Cereal, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, and toast or French toast. A big item was banana slice on toast, with cinnamon. Milk, orange and apple juice.
Lunch: We had 42 kids. Today was sandwich day. Sides everyday, raw vegetables, fruit salad, and some home made cookies. No soft drinks. Milk, water, and ice tea.
Tuesday, lasagna. Wednesday, beef stew. Thursday, home made pizza, Friday, BQ hamburgers and hotdogs.
The people that prep this food are all amazing. Most of the lunches are made fresh that day. The servers were excellent with the kids. Excellent group.
Well done. Kids living in those circumstances need support. Regardless of external funding this can't do anything but help.
Well it's been a great week. Homemade burgers today, excellent. But the chili lasagna on Tuesday was incredible So many amazing people helping out.
Many school programs have shut down for the summer, this one is still alive and running well. The teachers have above and beyond to keep this alive. Our church volunteers have also been outstanding. There are also a few parents that have jumped in to help out.
A reminder that the need is 12 months of the year, not just during school terms.
Very good day today. 18 kids for breakfast, but 26 for lunch. We even had a couple of adults, who came along with there children. Something the school might not allow when school goes back in September, but right now we have no problem feeding these hungry parents. I am really see a shift in what the children like to eat now. There not asking for chips, pop tarts, and high sugar granola bars anymore.
Right now many of our donations are either coming from people with gardens, or businesses in the area. So happy people are stepping up.
Later this month, with the help of a restaurant in the area we will be running a few classes for the parents in the area. Basically showing people how to put together inexpensive nutritional meals, and a way to stretch there dollars.
Well our summer program is nearly finished, and it has been a good summer. Lots of new volunteers. Also, a few new groups providing food and supply's. One of our big winners is almond, banana, cinnamon wraps. Banana, pumpkin, muffins are also very popular. Turkey, spinach, mozzarella burgers, are very popular with the kids.
If you ever are looking for volunteers, make a post!
Quote from: Jesse on August 31, 2023, 04:17:27 AM
If you ever are looking for volunteers, make a post!
I will. A person would need a criminal background check, and a child abuse check. Both have to be with in the last 2 years.
First week of school in the books. About the same numbers as last year so far. Getting lots of fresh braking right now. Felt bad for one lady that made a couple of dishes at home, unfortunately they can not be served to the children.
We are now up over 40 kids for our breakfast program. We were able to raise enough money to buy two new stoves and four new microwaves, which has really helped with our growing numbers. Wow, have electrical permits jumped up in price.
Well our Bomber border is heading home on Saturday. He's been a regular at helping out when he has the time, and he's even went out and got himself a food handlers certificate. He's pretty popular with the kids, and he was a little emotional today talking about his last couple of days in Winnipeg before leaving for the winter. However, he did tell the kids he will be back next summer.
Our numbers have leveled off, and we have actually stocked piled enough food supplies to get us to the new year. Now we just need to keep the fresh vegetables and fruits coming in.
A group of grade 4 students are doing a waste management study. All of the volunteers and teachers are participating in this student. Probably the same study as the City of Winnipeg is doing. It's very nice to see the children getting involved.
This month we will be having a student bake off. This should be a lot of fun. Two student and one volunteer will compete as a team for the school title. We have 8 teams and the winner will be crowned on December 20th. The judges are a panel of two grade 6 students and one teacher.
Sounds like the school is shutting down the program over the holidays. Sounds like our church may do a lunch program, while school is out.
Great news, our church has decided to host the children from the program for lunch and some indoor playtime over the holidays.
The church will also be hosting a turkey dinner for the children and there family's on Saturday December 23rd. Santa will make an appearance to hand out some gifts.
Your church is doing a great work. Thanks for caring. We need more of this everywhere.
Quote from: ModAdmin on December 19, 2023, 05:09:51 PM
Your church is doing a great work. Thanks for caring. We need more of this everywhere.
I was sad to find out that so many of these Children have never had a sit down turkey dinner at Christmas.
I see where River Elm School gave all there student PJ's for Christmas. Nice, great idea.
Christmas break program is going very well. No breakfast, but a full lunch program. Averaging about 35 kids a day. The church also has the gym open, so the kids can stay and play for the afternoon.
A good and uplifting story during this Christmas season. Thanks Pigskin.
Today was vaccine day. Most of the children and there families in our program have not received a flu shot yet. Today 219 people arrived for a flu shot. 73 of those people also asked and received a covid shot.
Quote from: Pigskin on January 03, 2024, 11:10:15 PM
Today was vaccine day. Most of the children and there families in our program have not received a flu shot yet. Today 219 people arrived for a flu shot. 73 of those people also asked and received a covid shot.
After three day of vaccinations: 704 flu shots, 512 Covid shots. Not big numbers, but every shot counts. My wife was hoping for 1000 of each, but we feel good with the people that showed up.
On Monday our dental program will start. It was really sad to find out that many of these children have never seen a dentist. Starting Monday, we will have a retired dentist coming in to start what could be a long couple of months. Thanks to Shoppers Drug Mart for donating 300 tooth brushes, and toothpaste for this project.
Well the Breakfast/lunch program is running very smooth. We have a great group of volunteers, and some excellent teachers. Numbers are holding pretty steady at around 20-22 kids for breakfast and around 30-35 kids for lunch. The dental program has gone very well. Shoppers has donated another 200 brushes and toothpaste. Many the kids are now brushing after lunch which never happened before.
The grade 4 students have finished there waste management report. They capped the report at 750 households. Apparently, only 30% of those households compost. A four person family that composts, reported that they put out there garbage and recycling every two to three weeks. Households that don't compost reported that they put out there garbage and recycling every week.
For us, a family of two. We compost about 4L a week a week, and put out our garbage and recycling about every 5-6 weeks.
A lot of the households polled, did admit to adding construction materials into the garbage from time to time. Also, not breaking down cardboards boxes before recycling them.
Most households said they would compost if there was more drop off areas in there neighborhood and the city supplied them with a container.
The church steps up again to run the program while the schools are closed for spring break. 38 kids have signed up for the program which includes breakfast, lunch, indoor playtime, crafts, and even a couple of baking classes.
With summer quickly approaching. We had to come up with a solution for our kids in the program. So the church decided they will have to programs. One will be a breakfast/lunch program and the other will be a summer camp. The summer camp will be a good spot for people who are working and need child care for the summer. The summer camp will have activities like crafting, baking classes, and extra help with next years classes.
Today was the first day for summer camp applications. 31 applications in 6 hours.
With the government pulling back a lot of there summer camp financial support, we were forced to do some fund raising. Our giant rummage sale on Saturday brought in $9,340 and then on Sunday our bake sale and silent auction made us another $3460. So, we will have enough money to fund our summer camp and breakfast/lunch program for July and August.
Well done. Efforts like this need to be applauded and supported.
Quote from: ModAdmin on May 28, 2024, 03:06:11 AMWell done. Efforts like this need to be applauded and supported.
Yes, a lot of incredible volunteers.
Grade 6 grad, but no awards. Awards will be handed out on a separate night and only for the kids winning the awards and there families. Apparently some teacher feel that handing out awards at graduations is not helping the mental health of the kids not receiving awards.
So, we ended up with 40 kids for our summer program. 10 are there just till noon, and 30 are there all day. Breakfast, Lunch, and snack in the afternoon. It's nice that the church has a full commercial kitchen. Crafts might be our biggest program, along with our baking classes.
Wow, it's been a fast couple of months. But, today was the last day of the church breakfast, lunch, summer camp program. It took a lot of volunteers to may this a super success. What an amazing group of people.
Quote from: Pigskin on September 03, 2024, 09:31:36 PMWow, it's been a fast couple of months. But, today was the last day of the church breakfast, lunch, summer camp program. It took a lot of volunteers to may this a super success. What an amazing group of people.
Well done. Love this type of helps for people in need.
Had our annual Thanksgiving dinner last night. 116 people, most of which are kids and there family's from our breakfast/lunch program. It was held at our church with 22 volunteers. 4 amazing ladies that cooked the turkeys. We actual had a band after dinner for about 30 minutes, and then dessert.
Cute little story, one of the little girls thought the whole berry cranberry sauce was dessert.
Well, before Christmas we were averaging about 30/35 kids for breakfast and 40 kids for lunch. The last two days, 42 for breakfast, and 55/60 for lunch. One mother telling me that with gas at $1.48, property taxes going up by 6%, and her cell phone jumping up $6.00 per mouth, she is tapped out. She is forced to us these programs. For many, it's going to be a tough year.
22 kids for breakfast this morning, 71 for lunch. The kids would rather stay in bed a little longer on a cold morning, and then stay for lunch. We are also finding kids asking for snacks at break time because they have missed breakfast.