The Amazing Community Schools in the
Tri-Cities

A few years ago, School District 43 went through an evaluation of their community school program and identified some schools that were designated as community schools. These Community Schools create centres with diverse and enhanced opportunities, where students, staff, families, residents, agencies and businesses work together to support student learning, building stronger families and communities. Community Schools offer breakfast programs, after school programs and spring break and summer camps.

A few weeks ago, I went to visit the breakfast program at James Park Elementary. I’d heard a lot about it and was curious to see what it was all about. And what I saw blew me away. This wasn’t just a program aimed at feeding kids; this was a program about how a community was built. James Park was a community that came together to source food, prepare food and serve food to not just their students, but the families, the childcares that serve the school and the staff that work there.

The Breakfast Club started at James Park in April 2018 with a grant that was received from the Breakfast Club of Canada. They opened the Club to all students in the school as staff wanted the program to be as inclusive and community focused as possible.

It was received incredibly well from the school community and has been going strong every since with an average of 150 to 160 people served every morning, Monday - Friday. What we saw start out as students coming to have breakfast has now turned into parents and grandparents having a bite to eat with their children when they drop them off or even a cup of coffee to chat with other students, teachers and families.

The program is funded through the Breakfast Club of Canada, President’s Choice Nutritional Grant, endless donations from local grocery stores and bakeries, private donations from community members and many, many hours of teachers, students and parents volunteering; and all with 2 goals in mind – building community and having a healthy start to the day.

There are 3 other schools that run breakfast programs – Seaview, Pitt River and Central.

Seaview’s breakfast program runs 2 days a week and they would like to expand it to 5 days a week with the help of community partners. On average, 60 to 80 people are served breakfast every day and the program is run entirely by volunteers.

Pitt River and Central run every day, serving on average 85 students, family and community at Pitt River and anywhere from 20 to 60 at Central. Central’s program has doubled in size this year and will grow further in September.

All the programs offer a variety of food daily and the menu rotates.

The programs are supported by the Breakfast Club of Canada, Cobbs Break, IKEA, Walmart and private and local donations. In fact, Walmart staff come in one day a year as their way of giving back to the community.

Central has a number of Riverside student volunteers as well as parent and community volunteers assisting every day.

In addition to the breakfast, camps and after school programs, Seaview offers a Reading Coaches program where volunteers spend 1 to 2 hours a week working with primary students and parenting talks aimed at working with families on navigating the joys and challenges of parenting.

For more information or, if you are interested in helping out, please feel free to contact the community school coordinators – Dasha, Laura and Shreya. Thanks for all you do to make our community better!!

Some of the incredible volunteers at James Park Elementary.