A national program bolstered by local donations and volunteer labour provides breakfast each morning to students from Houston Secondary School and adjacent Twain Sullivan Elementary.
Students from each school can not only enjoy a nutritious breakfast but it gives them time to settle in for morning classes, notes Craig McCaulay, the principal of both schools.
“It’s not just the students eating breakfast, but other students and teachers mingle together,” McCaulay noted of a welcoming school culture which has been established.
The students and teachers gather at Houston Secondary, taking advantage of its kitchen facilities.
“Teachers get to see a ton of students, just to see how they are doing before classes start,” McCaulay said. “What we want to create is a positive environment.”
McCaulay emphasized that breakfasts are available for all students, not just for those who may not have had one at home.
“There’s no distinction [between students]. Breakfasts are just part of everyone gathering together.”
Depending upon activities at the schools, between 75 to 130 students eat breakfast at the secondary school daily, estimated McCaulay. Based upon an average 100 students, that works out to approximately 25 per cent of the two populations of the schools.
The breakfasts are sponsored through the national Breakfast Club of Canada program and another program, Breakfast for Learning. Both are non-profits.
But McCaulay says local groups, businesses and volunteers are also key to the daily nutritious menus.
“There are financial donations and also volunteers who turn out,” he said, listing Canfor, the Bulkley Valley Credit Union, the Houston Fire Department, the RCMP and retired teachers as just some of those who provide assistance of one type or another.
“We also have community members, people with family connections to the students,” McCaulay continued.
“Having all these people involved reinforces the community aspect, that the schools are part of the community by inviting the community into the schools.”
The breakfast program started first at Houston Secondary but then expanded after several years to include Twain Sullivan.
McCaulay said there was some worry at first about having very young students from Twain Sullivan mingle with ones from the secondary school, but those worries were soon put to rest in the objective to create a single campus culture between the two facilities.
“We have younger students sitting with the older ones at the same table. We found older students becoming role models, taking on leadership roles,” he said.
Younger students will often sit with their older brothers and sisters, McCaulay added.
Breakfast fare ranges from dry cereal to fruit to waffles or pancakes to smoothies.
And it goes without saying, McCaulay emphasized, that a student who has had breakfast, will have a better classroom experience during the day.
Breakfast Club of Canada official Ryan Baker, who covers the northwest for the program from his office in Vancouver, said the club has been supporting breakfasts in Houston since 2014.
“Once we partner with a school, we’re there. They don’t need to apply each year,” he said.
In the last year, Breakfast Club of Canada provided approximately $4,000 in a direct grant and through one of its corporate sponsors, Buy Low Foods, which has a store in Houston, approximately $2,300 in gift cards.
“In this fashion, the support stays within the community,” Baker said of the Buy Low connection.
As did McCaulay, Baker emphasized the universal nature of the program in that every student has the opportunity to have breakfast, regardless of their individual circumstances.
“We find the good is almost secondary. What takes place is a warm community in the morning, a safe place for every student to start the morning,” he said.