Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids feeding close to 8,000 school age children daily

Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids has launched a new campaign to raise needed funds called Back to School to Learn, Plan and Grow.

The number of hungry children across the city is on the rise according to Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids (BB4CK).

Because of that trend, the charity has launched the Back to School to Learn, Play and Grow campaign for the month of September to ensure nearly 8,000 children have access to nutritious lunches every school day.

“From now until Sept. 30, folks can make a donation and it will be doubled up to the first $100,000 by our friends at the Matt Rumple Family Foundation,” said Bethany Ross, BB4CK executive director.

“We’ve also got partners at Calgary Co-op and Community Natural Foods and so folks can donate there all month.”

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Ross says the goal of the campaign is to raise $624,000 that will fund 156,000 lunches for 290 schools in Calgary.

She says that’s important because in 2024 BB4CK data shows that 38 percent of children live in a food insecure household - an 80 per cent increase in the last five years.

“We’re in schools from kindergarten right up until Grade 12,” she said. “So if there is a school in your community, there’s a really good chance that we have a school lunch program there.”

Ross says corporate Calgary pitches in with its staff members to make lunches weekday mornings but there’s a shortfall of drivers volunteering their time and vehicles to deliver the hampers to the schools.

There’s a lot of deliveries as Ross says some schools receive one hamper filled with close to 40 lunches, while other schools receive up to six hampers to feed hundreds of kids.

“Folks volunteer their time, they volunteer their vehicle. These are folks that maybe like to drive,” said Ross.

“They give us about an hour, one day a week or maybe two days a week to pick up food here at the kitchen and take it out to schools in their community.”

Dianne Hannaford has volunteered for four years and fills in whereever she’s needed. She’s spending more time behind the wheel of her vehicle one day a week making deliveries.

“We definitely need the drivers,” she said. “When I first started out, I was usually only going to maybe four schools, we have had so many more schools sign up that, on Tuesday when I was driving, I drove to seven schools so, yeah, we’re in great need for drivers.”

Hannaford says she’d prefer to stay inside and make lunches when the weather makes driving a challenge, but is passionate about making a difference in her community.

“What I really like and the reason I do it is because I had no idea until I started volunteering here that there were so many hungry kids,” she said. “And I think it really helps the teachers also, lots of the teachers were supplying food to kids and they have enough on their plate, so it’s really an important program.”

Learn more about BB4CK back to school program online.