First responders and seniors help fight youth hunger

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 15, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

It’s well known that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That is especially true for children who need a nutritious start to the day so they can focus on their education.
Many children, however, don’t get the breakfast they need to nourish their bodies and their minds.
The View at Lethbridge on Thursday morning staged a fundraiser to help children in the community who are food insecure.
The Pancakes, Heroes and Cheerios breakfast event had residents bringing to the retirement facility boxes of cereal in exchange for a pancake breakfast.
Lethbridge Police Services chief Shahin Mehdizadeh, and other members of the force as were on hand for the event that was staged outdoors with numerous boxes of cereal already donated shortly after the event started.
Organizers expected fire department staff to be participating as well.
In 2021, according to the Canadian Public Health Association, 5.8 million Canadians – 15.9 per cent of all households – were living with insecure or inadequate access to food.
Food bank use, says the association, reached its highest level ever in March of 2022 with nearly 1.5 million visits – an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year and 35 per cent since 2019.
“Food insecurity is more likely to affect households with lower incomes, and occurs at different levels of intensity where greater insecurity corresponds to worse health and social outcomes,” says the association.
Food insecurity shows racial disparities in Canada with Indigenous and Black households experiencing rates that are two to three times higher than white households.
One study suggests that one in six Canadian children under the age of 18 are affected by food insecurity.
“Our residents really love to help the community out any way they can so our company comes up with quite a few initiatives and we do a lot on our own as well. But we kind of jump on board always and we get the residents involved. They love to be involved in that sort of thing and we run with it, said Russ Lingard, general manager of The View.
“When it comes to children, whether it’s helping out with food or helping out with school supplies, that’s a big touch point for them that they just love to get involved with.”
Organizers had no particular goals for the event.
“We put it out to everybody a few weeks ago and we challenged our residents, as well and we’re just going to see where everything comes in here in the end,” add Lingard.
“Our residents feel strongly about giving back to the larger community and working together to be a champion for children. No one should worry about whether or not they will get to eat breakfast so our goal is to help children focus on learning in school by starting with a healthy breakfast.”

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