A few weeks ago, President’s Choice Children’s Charity announced it was immediately releasing $10 million in grants to program partners nationwide to ensure that children continue to have safe access to food during school closures.
Reaching more than 35,000 children each year in Saskatchewan, President’s Choice Children’s Charity provides food and nutrition education through a variety of school programs, as well as support during the weekend and summers.
With physical distancing measures resulting in the cancelation of most programs, the charity has taken a ‘feed kids first’ approach to provide flexibility to schools and program partners to get food to kids however they can.
In addition to access to 2020 funding, existing partners like the Boys and Girls Club of Yorkton, which serves more than 2,100 children and youth at six locations, also received an emergency grant to help address the increase in need. This has allowed them to work quickly, outside of the normal program requirements, to model their response to the specific needs of their community.
"People are already struggling during this difficult time – they should not have to worry about where their next meal is going to come from,” said Lorraine Moeller, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Yorkton in a release.
“Each week, we are providing our community with access to hundreds of nutritious meals and snacks through a variety of programs and services. We are extremely grateful to President's Choice Children's Charity for providing us with emergency funding so we can continue to offer much needed food security to our Club children, youth and families.”
In addition, President’s Choice Children’s Charity – Canada’s largest charitable funder of school meal programs – provides grants to 109 schools across Saskatchewan. These schools have been given the flexibility to use their funding to get food right away to their most vulnerable students, even while schools remain closed across the province.
