School nutrition program gets boost from tree collection
By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on January 24, 2024.
Senator Buchanan Elementary School participated in the City of Lethbridge’s annual Christmas Tree Collection initiative on Saturday.Volunteers from the school went out on certain routes all over the city to collect trees and drop them off at the recycling stations on the north, south and west sides.
In turn, the school received a $10,000 grant from the City of Lethbridge to support its nutrition program.
“We get to come out and do something for the community, which is really nice, and in return it’s a grant where we actually get to fund some nutrition and breakfast programs for our kids at the school,” said Zach Wanner, a Grade 4-5 teacher at the school.
Wanner says it’s really about getting the kids what they need.
“We’ve got our breakfast program where we make sure all of our kids are able to get whatever they need to eat in the morning,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter if they’ve already eaten or they haven’t had the chance to eat, it’s universal, and so we’re able to get a nutritious, healthy breakfast and then through the day make sure they have something to eat for lunch as well.”
The school has been involved in the initiative before.
“Our principal, Lenee (Fyfe), she’s just in contact with them and she puts forward a submission to say hey we’d love to help out and do this for you guys and they have a grant that goes to us and helps feed our kids,” said Wanner.
The school provides two lunches and a breakfast every day through the nutrition program.
The City has done the tree collection initiative for the past 30 years with local youth groups to have Christmas trees still give after the holiday season.
Over 1.5 million kilograms or around 95,000 Christmas trees have been diverted from local landfills since the program started.
Because of the polar vortex that brought subzero temperatures to the province, it had been postponed a week. 2
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