For many children living in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, a nutritious meal is hard to come by.
According to the 2019 B.C. Child Poverty Report Card, which is based on Statistics Canada data, one in four children — approximately 4,040 kids in the area — live in poverty. The report also shows this is higher than the provincial average of one in five.
It means school meals are critical for those children and that is why when classes were cancelled in Cowichan Valley school district due to COVID-19, the charitable organization behind those meals made certain hungry kids were still getting fed.
Nourish Cowichan Society was co-founded in 2017 by Anita Carroll, Fatima Da Silva and Dina Holbrook when the trio of activists realized how many local kids were coming to school with empty stomachs.
