Acadia School Lunch Program Update

This program has been operating in cooperation with the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour and many wonderfully dedicated volunteers for over six years. Due to all the pandemic changes at both the church and schools as well as decreased funding, this program has sadly come to an end. In August, for the last time, we prepared prepackaged lunch items as well as breakfast cereal which was distributed by the Acadia Pantry Program. This past week, we supplied family sized boxes of cereal to be distributed to families with school children, again through the Acadia Pantry Program, as our final effort to support local children with our remaining funds. With a new school year underway, it is our hope that other permissible food programs will step in to support the children.

Dianne Mather and Bonnie Hondas

Please see below letter to the congregation and volunteers

McDougall Congregation,

After much deliberation and with mixed emotions, the leaders of the Acadia School Lunch Program have determined it is time to end the program.  Our involvement in this program has been very fulfilling but we feel that this decision is at the right time for both the program and for us, as leaders/volunteers. This past year has been challenging, not only due to the pandemic and the change in policy of the Calgary Board of Education, but also due to diminishing funds. This resulted in us having to completely redo our method of operation. Due to the change in CBE policy of only allowing food to be brought in by organizations with whom the board has a contract, we were advised we would not be able to continue to operate the program as previously done. Even without COVID, we could not continue this program without major revisions.

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who have supported the lunch program over the years. We are grateful for the support that McDougall United Church has provided to this program since its inception in May, 2015. It would also not have been the success it had been without the wonderful volunteers who were committed to the program each year. We know how appreciative the schools were of our contributions. We are also grateful for the partnerships with Lutheran Church of Our Saviour since our first year, as well as the Acadia Food Pantry Program who distributed food to families with children during the COVID-adapted program this past year. It enabled us to continue to support local children and families but with a more limited and costly program due to the necessary precautions of supplying only prepackaged foods. It also allowed us to fulfill our commitment to provide healthy food to school children as specified to our funders. We are grateful for the financial support of Chinook Winds region of the United Church and their understanding of our need to adapt the program to fit the requirements of COVID.

Our plan is to end the program after the Acadia Food Pantry September distribution of food on September 21, 2021. We will be providing the prepackaged lunch items in August for one last time. In addition, our leaders have decided to purchase breakfast cereal for these families in August and September. The intent is to ease the transition to school-based food programs for this next school year. We recognize that September is always a very expensive month for families with children and assisting with breakfast to start a child’s school day may be very helpful at that time.

Sincerely,

Dianne Mather and Bonnie Hondas

Co – Coordinators Acadia School Lunch Program

Dear Volunteers,

Firstly, please accept our apologies for not reaching out to you sooner, since we were forced to abruptly shutter our program in mid-March 2020 due to the onset of COVID-19. It has certainly been a strange 18 months since then and who would have ever thought we would still be in this pandemic. We hope all of you and those close to you have remained safe and well. 

As coordinators of the Acadia School Lunch Program, we are sad to announce the end of this program,  effective this month, after 6 years of operation. Given the ongoing challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to depleted funds, the decision was made recently that this program was no longer viable. This decision was not made lightly and comes with many mixed emotions. 

When schools reopened in September 2020, we were prepared to resume providing lunches to hungry students. With the kitchen at McDougall United Church closed and many precautions still in effect, we knew we would have to change our approach and we were ready to supply the schools with COVID-safe prepackaged lunch snack items. However, this plan was nixed by the CBE as we did not have a contract with them. Not being defeated and still wanting to use the funds we had for the purpose for which they were intended (i.e., to feed hungry school children), we opted to purchase and provide these carefully chosen healthy items monthly through the Acadia Food Pantry program to those families with school-aged children who came to the pantry program. We did not feel comfortable putting our volunteers at any potential risk so we, along with the two coordinators from our partners at Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, met monthly from October to August to pack the items for distribution. With the few remaining funds, we were also able to purchase breakfast cereal to be distributed to those families in August and September. 

The success of this program was always because of the very dedicated group of volunteers who felt passionate about feeding hungry school children. It has been a true joy to work along side with all of you and we will always hold dear to our heart memories of those Monday morning gatherings. We are also very grateful for those of you who met monthly to bake various nutritious goodies for the program and we know those times together will also be remembered fondly. While we have run into a few of you over the past year, when we can safely meet again and this pandemic is behind us, we are hopeful that we will be able to have a proper farewell and thank-you for all our volunteers. 

Sending you all a virtual hug and wishing you all the best!

Bonnie  & Dianne