Proper nutrition aids learning

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Proper nutrition aids learning

Brown Bag Lunch Program Fuels Healthy Schoolkids

By Berenyi, Calgary Herald December 21, 2010

Every day, nearly half of the 44 students at Our Lady of Lourdes School get a

free, healthy lunch.

Otherwise, they'd go hungry.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a school for students from Grades 1 to 12 with special

education needs: one group has autism spectrum disorder; the other has severe

emotional and behavioural disorders.

Compounding their problems, many come from families unable to provide proper

nutrition.

Hunger wreaks havoc on their behaviour and, as a result, their school work.

" They fall apart in the afternoon if they don't have lunch, " says principal

Ranger.

So, every day, Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids delivers protein-rich

sandwiches, plus fruit and vegetables, a healthy snack, and juice or yogurt.

Eating lunch makes a profound difference in students' ability to focus on their

school work and cope with the complex challenges they face.

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They also get " thrown out " of the classroom and sent to the principal's office

less often, notes Ranger.

Since the Brown Bagging program was introduced at Our Lady of Lourdes four years

ago, there have been fewer visits from police. Before then, hungry, often angry

students were shoplifting and damaging property in the surrounding Beltline

community at lunchtime.

" Now, they stick around to eat . . . and then play basketball, floor hockey or

indoor soccer, " says Ranger, who has several student volunteers help him

distribute the lunches.

Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids is a registered charity and one of the 14

Calgary Herald Christmas Fund recipients in 2010.

Originally established in 1990 to feed lunches to homeless children and youths

in Calgary, its mandate changed in 2005 to include undernourished

schoolchildren.

Every day, BB4CK makes between 1,200 and 1,800 school lunches, which are

delivered to 90 schools, both in the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary

Catholic School District, says executive director Bob McInnis.

Another 1,300 to 1,400 lunches are made and distributed by partners in the

community through BB4CK's Feed Kids program.

The charity's mandate is simple: to provide kids with essential nutrition so

they can learn and be active. McInnis says there are " thousands of kids " in

Calgary who go hungry every day.

Of the children BB4CK feeds, 20 per cent come " from homes where the parents are

unwilling to provide adequate nutrition. And that can look like a lot of things,

but it almost always has substance abuse, mental health or poor training issues

attached to it, " says McInnis.

But fully 80 per cent come from homes where parents are unable to provide

adequate nutrition.

" 'Unable' looks like many things, but usually it's too much month and too

little paycheque, " McInnis explains, adding the families are often " doing the

best job they can. "

Sue Konopnicki says BB4CK is a " real bonus for those in the community who need

it. "

Konopnicki is principal at Vista Heights School, a small elementary in a

high-needs community in the northeast where 47 per cent of the students speak

English as a second language. Some Vista Heights students rely on both BB4CK and

a separate breakfast program.

" Most come because their parents can't afford to feed them all of the time, " she

says. " They might be able to do it part of the month, but not all. "

Of the 12 children who benefit from the BB4CK program, some stay and eat at

school. But several take the provided lunch home to eat it because their

families can't afford to pay the fees for lunchroom supervision. Konopnicki

suspects some share the lunch with hungry siblings.

Children who don't eat lunch are " more fidgety, unsettled and unable to focus or

concentrate, " she says, telling of one little boy who recently arrived late to

school, with no breakfast in his tummy.

" After recess he didn't want to participate in anything. When I said to him

'What's up?' He said 'I'm hungry.' We gave him a brown bag lunch and within 20

minutes he was ready to work and get involved. "

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