Community Care- St. Catharines and Thorold is proud to be taking part in Food Banks Canada’s After the Bell Program again this summer. This vital program provides children with access to nutritious snacks during the summer when need is higher due to many school-centered support programs not being available. An average of 36% of people accessing our food security services are children, and these children deserve to have a full tummy during the summer months.

In 2021, After the Bell delivered 150,000 healthy food packs to food banks across Canada with a focus on reaching communities of greatest need. This year, 175,000 packs were delivered to over 190 communities across the country.  Here at Community Care, we were so excited and grateful to receive 840 packs this year. These packs include container shelf stable milk, oatmeals packets, crackers, hummus, wow butter single serves and more. We also received grant money to supplement fresh food. We will be including a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables depending on availability. We started handing out these packs to clients on July 4th, giving one to each child in a household until we run out.

Summer is supposed to be a time when kids learn to dive at the community pool or soar to the sky on the swings at the local playground. But that’s really hard to do when you’re hungry. Thanks to Food Banks Canada and the generous After the Bell partners, we are helping change that!