Since 2012, James Stuart and an army of kids volunteering have been taking field trips to the local community hall to create healthy lunches for kids their own age through B's Supporting Youth Foundation. Over the years the program has fed thousands of kids and averages approx. 10,000 lunches per year to neighbouring schools with the help of their volunteers. The program operates 100% on volunteers so every dollar goes directly back to operational costs (food cost and transportation). They have no paid positions in their organization. During the 2012 – 2013 school year, Grade 5 students at St. Richard Elementary School were presented with the question: What can we do to improve our community? In response, students created a bagged lunch program and began to feed hungry kids in schools across the city. Since its establishment, students have made over 40,000 bagged lunches for kids in need, identified by principals and teachers, at schools across the city. In August of 2015, the B’s Supporting Youth Foundation was registered as a charity to oversee and develop the bagged lunch program as well as to ensure its sustainability in the future. Every Tuesday, we are joined by 6-8 students and their teacher from participating schools who arrive at Millhurst Community League to prepare and deliver lunches. Our kids-helping-kids approach teaches children a meaningful way to help others: they can make them lunch. Our goal is to continue to provide opportunities for Edmonton students to actively assist their peers. During the 2017-18 school year, our students prepared and delivered a total of 11,930 lunches! It is our hope that we are creating a strong sense of social service and philanthropy, and teaching students that help and hope can come in many forms. Sometimes it’s as simple as a full lunch bag.
[1:35] Who is B's Supporting Youth Foundation
[4:25] Learning from kids
[5:47] How did it all start
[10:39] Who do they support
[11:18] How many lunches do they give out
[14:45] Where does the funding come from
[18:35] How has COVID impacted their program
[24:24] The future of the program
[27:27] Back to school advice in the middle of a pandemic
[36:32] How to help them feed more kids
[40:19] Has the need changed since COVID
[41:52] How does James want to be remembered?
------
"We have provided over 50,000 lunches since we started."
"An average of 250-300 lunches go out per week."
"Kids helping kids is unique in that kids are the driving volunteer force to support the program."
"We would love to stop doing what we are doing."
James talks about the beginning of the program, how he got involved and where the program is going (even with the impact of the pandemic). For more information on B's Supporting Youth Foundation, visit http://www.bsyfedmonton.org/
If you are interested in donating to help them feed more kids, visit https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/24751