The  tipping point came two years ago when the numbers of hungry students arriving at King George Secondary school – deep in the heart of Vancouver’s West End – could no longer be ignored.

The school on Barclay Street not far from Stanley Park, sits amid the most crowded urban landscape in the province under the shadows of the numerous high rise apartments that surround it.

“It was midway through the year before last (2021) that we started feeding them breakfast,” said principal Tyler Evans.

They had to because of the numbers of children coming in hungry each morning, he said.

The breakfast program was put together by the community school coordinator Vive Wong and Siobhan Powlowski from the nearby Gordon Neighbourhood House whose staff cook and serve breakfast each morning.

The money to start it came from a pilot project funded by The United Way during the Covid period.

“Funding was only ever meant as a temporary measure and we were expected to move to other sources,” said Powlowski. “But it’s been a great success.”

The effort to feed youth and children in this part of the city began after a study two years ago by showed that around 50 percent of them were living in poverty.

“We were pretty struck by that data and it was confirmed by the school. But we didn’t have the resources to put a food program in place until we received that grant,” she said.

King George is the smallest secondary school in the district with just 640 students but around 50 of them rely on the school for breakfast each day and 88 need to be fed lunch.

“We’re a vulnerable school,” said Evans. “ The financial condition of some families here is getting worse and they are finding it harder to feed their children.

“With inflation and the rising cost of food and accommodation anyone making less than $25 an hour is struggling,” he said.

The school district provides the money for lunch but to keep the breakfast program going the Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign is being asked for $32,000.

AAS23-692 & AAS23-884