The Waterloo Catholic District School Board and Waterloo Region District School Board are stepping up in the fight against student hunger ahead of the holidays.
Both boards are running fundraising campaigns in support of Nutrition for Learning, a local organization that provides food programs to schools across the region.
By way of one-time or monthly donations, residents can make a significant impact on food insecurity in the community.
A $20 donation provides 15 meals featuring fresh produce, protein and whole grains, while a $20 monthly donation supplies over 180 meals in a year.
Lema Salaymeh, senior manager of communications for WCDSB, said the Catholic board tries to de-stigmatize the program for its students.
"We do participate but they run it for us," Salaymeh said of the board's involvement with Nutrition for Learning.
"They have food boxes in our schools that they replenish. We don't track student access, that way they can confidently pick up a cheese-string, tangerine or granola bar and they have dignity when they do."
Within the public board, the NFL program is run in 121 schools with over 57,000 students having access.
Erin Moraghan, chief executive officer of Nutrition for Learning, told CambridgeToday last week the biggest challenge her team faces is funding due to increased need.
The program's funding comes from four primary sources; the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, corporate partners, community foundations and grants, and public donors.
Through discussions with partners, she said it's believed that approximately 50 per cent of students access school food programs to some degree.
"It feels like week after week, the demands on the program are more and more," she said.
"What we're hearing from our school partners is really unprecedented. It's night and day from where we were five years ago or before the pandemic."
It was announced late last month that the provincial and federal governments struck a deal that will see $108 million allocated to school food funding over the next three years, a total that's expected to benefit an additional 160,000 children.
It's not yet known how this will impact the operations of Nutrition for Learning, however, making fundraisers like the ones the school boards put on critical to sustainability.
"We could desperately use any amount of that funding," Moraghan said.
To donate through the public board visit wrdsb.ca.
To donate via the Catholic board click here.
The campaigns run until Dec. 20.
