Fort St. John schools organize food drive for Women’s Resource Society

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Schools around Fort St. John organized a food drive for the Fort St. John Women’s Resource Society. 

The food drive was started by Baldonnel Elementary School, which was later joined by the Wonowon Elementary School and C.M. Finch Elementary School, who have now challenged Alwin Holland Elementary School to donate as well. 

Craig Brownlee, Baldonnel’s principal, said: “[The food drive] originated from Sacha Kay, [who] is a grade one/two teacher at the school.” 

“It was in [a] conversation she had outside of the school, [at] a skating club, and she brought it back to the school and staff [to check] if we wanted to pursue it.” 

He said an information package was sent out to families regarding the food drive. 

“The Baldonnel PAC [Parent Advisory Council] bought a bunch of items for the food drive, plus they wanted to challenge other parent advisory councils, and that’s when Wonowon [Elementary School] jumped in as well,” he added. 

The school collected 277 individual items, while Wonowon donated 211 food items. 

Brownlee said: “[Parents who] could support it would send their children to school, usually with a little bag of food, and we had a drop off in front of the school there, and we only did it for about eight days or so.

He said students at the school are “very generous.” 

“I believe the majority of them had good feelings about doing good things for the community,” he noted. “There are some other things that the kids here do for the greater community and so it’s an ongoing practice.” 

Lilly Loichinger, the Women’s Resource Society’s Outreach Store co-ordinator, said the donation included non-perishable food items like peanut butter, pasta and pasta sauce, and soup. 

“We will be handing them out to families and individuals of low income who are struggling with food security,” Loichingher said. 

She added that C.M. Finch did a spring BBQ, during which its PAC and leadership collected 291 food items to donate to the society. 

She added: “I’d like to thank the students, the teachers, and the parents who made this possible. It’s such a wonderful thing that they are able to do for us, and we are very appreciative [of] the amazing amount of help we’ve received.”