Food security amidst a global pandemic

FREDERICTON — Each day at Kim’s Kitchen, located near Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton’s Northside, Mary Johnston prepares nearly 230 lunches for students per day for the Student Hunger Program.

Cassandra Blackmore, the executive director of the Fredericton Community Kitchens, says that the Student Hunger Program helps feed between 230-350 students at 15 different schools in the Fredericton area. This program is made possible thanks to the support of donors and the volunteers who work each day to make sure that no student goes hungry.

Students at the schools that work with the Student Hunger Program can self-nominate for the lunch program, or teachers’ at the schools may identify students in need. Johnston, the Student Hunger program coordinator says that the program does not require students to share any personal information about their situations, and any student who requires a lunch will receive one. The lunches consist of a sandwich, which varies each day of the week, fresh fruit, and an assortment of snacks to keep students nourished through the school day.

“We are well aware that hunger does not end at 3 P.M on a Friday, and therefore, we also offer a backpack program so that students can take home non-perishables that will help to feed them and their families over the weekend,” says Blackmore.

On average, the Student Hunger Program provides over 70 000 lunches for students throughout the year and 31 00 backpacks to students in need. When the schools closed in March, Blackmore had just come on as the Executive Director of the Fredericton Community Kitchens and was unsure of how to continue to reach students, when she had no means of contacting them. Ensuring that their students continued to be supported by the program when they needed it most was Blackmore’s main priority.

Thanks to the support from the schools and the community, they were able to establish a Pantry Delivery Program which helped to provide weekly groceries for 180 families from March to mid-August. They quickly outgrew their space at Kim’s Kitchen and had to move into the cafeteria of Leo Hayes High School. This was an unprecedented program, as they were working to provide families with three meals a day, seven days a week and they could not have done so without the help of their funders and community volunteers.

Blackmore explains that before the pandemic hit, they had been trying to develop a pilot program for their Summer backpacks. Blackmore and Johnston both hope that they can continue to offer a program such as this throughout the Summer months.

“In previous years we have tried to do things like that and it wasn’t as big, or it didn’t get to as many families as we would have hoped, but COVID really made us realize what we can be capable of with help from others around in the community,” Johnston said.

For now, they are pleased to be back to their usual operations and so are the students. Johnston said that she hopes that we won’t have another lockdown anytime soon, as this was a lot of stress on all students, and particularly those who depend on programs such as these to fill their stomachs.

Whatever happens in the coming months, Blackmore and her team are dedicated to ensuring that food is not one of the concerns students have during these challenging times.

“We never say no, and we always make it work. We will find a way. We just can’t turn a blind eye.”