Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids hopes to raise $1M

A Calgary charity is hoping to raise $1 million this holiday season in an effort to keep up with increasing demand and rising food costs. 

Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids (BB4CK) feeds more than 6,500 kids lunch every school day, but officials with the organization say they're seeing a hundred or more children entering the program every month. 

BB4CK executive director Bethany Ross says the agency distributes meals to children in more than 75 per cent of Calgary schools.

"Every community that you could be in, as you're driving or as you're doing your chores and errands today, we have a school that has students who are receiving lunches in that community," Ross said.

"There's certainly families who have experienced food insecurity for a long time, and school lunches are a really important support for them, and have been for a while. Then there are some kids who are going to get lunch today, who only need it today – this is a one-time very temporary stressor for their family. We're talking about parents and also kids, who have never had to worry about where foods coming from before. We've never experienced this."

Ross says Bb4ck is providing 20 per cent more school lunches now than it did 12 months ago.

Despite that, she says they remain committed to providing healthy and fresh food.

The other challenge is that service costs are rising just as fast as demand for the school lunches.

"It's totally a double whammy, the number of kids who need food has gone up plus food prices are up," Ross said,

"We're certainly paying more per lunch with the amount of food that we're sending out right now."

The Calgary Foundation released its annual Quality of Life report in October, which reported that 35 per cent of parents in Calgary have recently skipped a meal so that their kids can have access to food. 

"No parent thought, 'I'd really like to make sure that my kids don't have food today,'" Ross said.

"Parents are doing everything that they can. I often think about the stress of that, how much sleep are they losing? How much are they carrying that worry around going to work, as you're caring for your kids?"

Anyone who feels they need access to BB4CK's services is encouraged to talk to their school administrators, or go to the agency's website to apply.

BB4CK delivers bins containing the lunches to schools, but distribution is done differently at each school, with some discreetly distributing them to individuals, while others take the whole delivery and put it on the cafeteria allowing students to take what is needed.

The agency's website highlights the stories of children who have used the service and volunteers who are working with the agency. It's is also the best place to make a donation to help feed hungry kids in Calgary schools.

Ross says while the agency is aiming for the $1 million mark this year, donations of any size make a difference.

"A person who makes a one-time $5 or $10 donation is going to buy a couple of lunches for a couple of kids, which is pretty amazing," Ross said.

"The cost to purchase, custom make and deliver one lunch is $3.50. So literally every donation makes a difference in making sure the kids have a nourishing meal."

Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids is a community-funded organization with 100 per cent of its funding coming from donations from the local community.