Employees of SCC had identified many children who were coming in on the weekends and asking for something to eat, some of whom, when asked, said that they did not have dinner the evening before. The Downtown Eastside Strathcona neighbourhood is part of the V6A area code, which records the lowest mean incomes in all of Canada. While many charitable food programs have focused successful outreach efforts in this neighbourhood, it is the children who slip through the cracks and continue to experience food insecurity. Pre-schoolers and growing children are particularly hurt by food insecurity, with studies showing links between the lack of nutrition and learning from prenatal stage through to the school year. We started the Backpack Program because we saw an obvious need that required immediate attention, filling backpacks with food in order to bridge the hunger gap of the weekend when the centre’s regular food programs run during the week.
