Image supplied by Starfish Pack Abbotsford.
Back To School

Starfish Pack program aims to make sure children don’t worry about hunger

Aug 29, 2022 | 5:25 PM

ABBOTSFORD — With a new school year on the horizon, the Archway Food Bank in Abbotsford is preparing to serve kids and their families through their Starfish Pack program.

Meghan Kellington, who is the Starfish Pack coordinator, said the program first saw its roots in 2013 and started off with six children in one school.

“It has now grown to over 40 elementary, middle, and high schools and is now serving over 400 students in our community,” Kellington said.

With the cost of living going up, the program coordinator said it is anticipated that more kids will need to enlist the assistance of the program.

“We will probably reach 500 students, if not more,” she elaborated. “So, we’re preparing to serve more students than we ever have before.”

Starfish Pack relies on donations and occasionally receives grants from Food Banks Canada and Food Banks BC. The program works on a week-to-week basis, with 11 churches that volunteer their time to pack and deliver the bags to schools in Abbotsford.

“What happens is I send the menu of what we’re ordering to the Save-On-Foods on Whatcom Rd., and they provide us with a discount,” Kellington explained. “And they also split the order into those 11 groups so that our volunteers are able to pick up their order.”

Volunteers then pack the items into bags and deliver them to their assigned schools.

“So, each volunteer group delivers between three and six schools depending on the size of the need at each school,” she said.

The program kicks off in the first week of October this year and runs until the end of the school year.

“And then we transition into our summer Starfish program, so the students don’t have to go without during the summertime,” Kellington added.

She further established that 800 people or more benefit from the program every year, and financial donations are always welcome.

For more information, people can visit starfishpack.com.