Carley Romas, shown above, has spent most of her career in inner-city schools on the east side of Vancouver, where there were resources for impoverished children. But now she’s on the south slope and it’s been an unpleasant surprise.
“There’s a big difference in the amount of support schools get from outside agencies,” said Romas, a youth and family worker at David Thompson secondary on East 55th.
“In those other schools, there were always people donating food or clothing or giving away hockey tickets or coming in with a big thing of paper or pencils, and here we have none of that.
“I guess because we’re not in the Downtown Eastside, people think we don’t need it. But families here are struggling. Poverty’s spreading. It’s not just in a certain area anymore.”
Romas, who is also responsible for five elementary schools, knows of at least 43 families in need of immediate help that she’s unable to provide. And with Christmas looming, there’s the need for hampers.
“When I came here last year,” she said, “counsellors in the high school were saying they had families who were struggling financially and did I know where to get fresh vegetables or food, or could I come up with any kind of food security for them.
“So I phoned some of my connections at the inner-city schools and they were gracious enough to put together some Christmas hampers.”
But that connection has been lost as a reorganization of inner-city schools saw those project teachers moved elsewhere.
So far, Romas's only ally for hampers is the 19Twenty Church on Argyle Drive, but she thinks the demand will outrun the small congregation’s resources.
Hampers usually consist of food and clothing for a family.
“The amount of hampers that’s been requested is kind of overwhelming to do by yourself, and the church is helping and I’m lucky I have them. But I don’t think they will be able to meet the demand.”
To help families in need, each month Romas has applied to The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign.
The money will enable her to put some dignity into the process of providing relief.
“If I could get fresh fruit and vegetables and be able to give them a gift card to Superstore — let them decide what they need instead of deciding for them,” she said. "If people could buy what they need themselves, it makes it seem less like a handout.”
OUR 2015 CAMPAIGN IS CLOSED. PLEASE SEE OUR MAIN PAGE (https://fundrazr.com/profiles/vancouver-sun-childrens-fund) FOR OUR CURRENT CAMPAIGN.
THE 2011 SCHOOL YEAR had barely begun at Admiral Seymour elementary when teacher Carrie Gelson, frustrated after a difficult day at work, wrote an impassioned open letter to Vancouver residents questioning whether anyone cared about her inner-city students who were coming to school with empty tummies and holes in their shoes.
On the day The Vancouver Sun published her letter, when she arrived at the East Vancouver school, “People had already dropped off thousands of dollars in cash by that time.”
So we told her story, introducing readers to her children. And because you began donating money, clothing, school equipment and field trips, by the spring of 2013, the donations were close to $1 million to Adopt-a-School. The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund matched some of those donations for a total of $1.3 million.
Because of you, hundreds of Vancouver-area schoolchildren now have boots to wear in the rain, warm breakfasts and are experiencing things they would never have otherwise.
For more than three decades, you have enabled The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund to raise than $11.5 million, of which more than $7 million has been distributed to nearly 1,000 non-profit children’s charities in B.C.
The season of giving is once again upon us, and we're hoping you'll contribute to Adopt-a-School to keep alive this great legacy that we both started so many years ago.
