Mamas for Mamas Vancouver is launching a fundraising campaign to help feed needy families this summer in the Lower Mainland.
With members across the region, including Delta and Richmond, the campaign is donation-based with all funds being used to purchase gift cards to both Superstore and Walmart.
Mamas for Mamas will then coordinate the donation of the gift cards to needy families throughout the Lower Mainland by working with school principals in various communities.
Tsawwassen’s Andrea Delf, who is branch director for Mamas for Mamas Vancouver, says the need is great in every community.
“The low income pockets here in South Delta don’t even compare to some other areas of say Vancouver, but we still have a lot of needy families in our community,” she said. “There are a lot of families who rely on schools for food. They send their kids to school with no breakfast, no lunch…it’s also where they go for support, so when that is taken away [in the summer], some families really struggle. We hopefully will be able to support a few hundred families in July and August. The more money we raise, the more families we can support. The families will be hand-picked by the principals of the school and we also will be supporting some of our clients.”
Delf said the numbers they have received from some of the schools in the Lower Mainland indicate 40 per cent of their students are in need of food support.
“Those numbers are really hard to hear,” she said. “I had the idea for this myself, because we see the struggle when school is not in session, so I called a number of schools and talked with principals and school counsellors about this and how much these families need this support.”
As part of the campaign, Mamas for Mamas are also doing a giveaway where everyone who donates a minimum of $50 will be entered into a draw for an Apple Watch.
Make a donation to the campaign at: www.mamasformamas.org.
