LLF donates $100,000 to Food Sharing Project
Posted on 11/18/2020
A $100,000 gift will support The Food Sharing Project’s Student Nutrition Programs in schools and home-delivery food boxes to vulnerable families in school communities across the Limestone District School Board, ensuring students have access to fresh and healthy food to improve learning readiness.
Half of the $100,000 gift will be directed to help offset a 35% increase in food costs for in-school Student Nutrition Programs. The other $50,000 will go to support the bi-weekly home delivery of food boxes or grocery gift cards, up to the end of the 2020/2021 school year, for up to 450 families.
Throughout the pandemic, food security has become one of the most serious issues facing the community. Recent data from the United Way indicates 1800 meals a day are served across Kingston and Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. Before COVID-19, that number was 100 meals a day.
Due to COVID-19 health risks and school closures, the LLF pivoted from its typical activities supporting learning projects in schools, to providing some funding and volunteer drivers to The Food Sharing Project through the spring and summer months.
"Although the LLF suspended its grants and events, the health and wellness of students remains a priority," notes Adam Young, Chair of the LLF. As COVID-19 continues to impact the food delivery model of the Food Sharing Project, the Foundation saw there was an immediate role it could play to help keep students fed and learning. “Supporting this essential service fits into the LLF mandate and the Board is honoured to contribute,” adds Young.
As the organization which provides nutritious food to students in schools the Food Sharing Project realized, as soon as schools closed in March, that they had to find a way to get the food students depended on at school, to them at home. Brenda Moore, Chair of The Food Sharing Project affirms, “Through the generous support of the Limestone Learning Foundation the Food Sharing Project will now be able to provide food stability for students and their families during these unpredictable times.”
The FSP provides over 6000 meals every week to students in their schools and those learning from home. In addition, the FSP currently supports over 200 families with a bi-weekly food box, which provides breakfast and lunch items, to supplement the single-serve nutrition food that is available at school. Due to COVID-19 protocols, the FPS is limited to what it can offer students at schools. The addition of FSP’s home food box will help families bridge the gap in their budgets to provide much needed nourishment for the many students who typically eat breakfast and lunch at school.
Many of the 22,000 students attending LDSB schools and alternative education sites rely heavily on School Nutrition Programs. School data indicates 50% of all students access this program at one time or another – some occasionally, some daily.