THUNDER BAY – In an effort to connect hungry children with food on the weekends, a Canadian charity is providing students with a reliable access to food.
Isthmus, formerly known as Blessings in a Backpack, is one of the only national charities to provide weekend food for elementary school children living in poverty.
Isthmus Thunder Bay partnered with Frankie’s Pizzeria Thursday and raised more than $14,550 for the program, which will help sponsor 121 children in the city.
The program aims at providing bags of food for children to take home from school on Friday, so they can come back to school Monday ready to learn.
Isthmus Thunder Bay currently feeds 305 children in 10 elementary schools with 55 children on the waiting list.
Officials say in order to take on a school, the funds must be in place for the next three years because the program cannot go into a school and pull out after only a year.
The cost per child is $120 per school year, which broken down is $3 a child per weekend.
With 100 students on the waiting list at Ecole Gran Morgan, the program has been able to secure national funding for about 45 this year, with 55 yet to be funded.
To keep the program going within that school for the next three years, about $36,000 needs to be raised.
Donations can be made online. Click the button Direct my Donations, and choose the city of Thunder Bay. All funds will be used to purchase food from Cav-Tal at Norah Crescent.
