Many families of Mount Pleasant Elementary students don't have enough food to get through the weekend. School staff try to help by handing out grocery gift cards ranging from $25 to $50 every Friday. But they can't do it alone.

At Lord Strathcona Elementary School, many parents struggle to provide food, clothing, bus tickets and other necessities for their children. Strathcona needs $15,000 in emergency funds to meet their kids' most basic needs.

At Maple Ridge Secondary, students who were going through an entire day without food had been able to get a nutritious lunch thanks to an Adopt-a-School donor who provided funding for this program three years ago. But the program is running out of money.

Kidsafe provides our most vulnerable children with a safe place to go after school and on holidays. The children are fed, they participate in activities, they're supported and supervised. Otherwise, they would be on their own.

A music therapy program gives students with mobility problems the chance to participate in something that would otherwise be out of reach for them.

Many children entering Henderson Elementary had poor literacy levels and weren't ready for school. The school launched Greenlight to Kindergarten, a program that got kids up to speed. Then ministry of education rules forced cancellation of the project.

Only two boxes of food are donated weekly to children in Ladysmith who are going hungry. There's not enough food or cold-weather clothing to go around.

Kateslem Youth Society is feeding children living in poverty in the Tri-Cities. The society needs $10,000 for breakfasts, lunches and snacks for 275 children who otherwise won't have enough to eat — and for garden boxes to grow vegetables.

It's hard to focus on your studies when you're hungry, so this principal wants students to start the day right with a good breakfast.

Help keep our kids fed, warm and learning. Your donation to The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-a-School campaign will change the lives of hundreds of needy school children in Metro Vancouver.