The number of children needing support from Hunger in Moose Jaw’s daily school lunch program is higher than ever in 2022-23 — and thanks to economic pressures, so is the cost of providing those lunches.
That’s why Sharla Sept, executive director of Hunger in Moose Jaw, significantly raised the organization’s fundraising goal this year.
In past years, the annual fall ‘I Bought a Lunch’ campaign had a goal of $50,000. That amount had been enough to provide about 350 children at schools throughout Moose Jaw with a daily lunch. Lunches include a sandwich, fruit and veg, a snack, and a dairy product.
When fundraising launched on Oct. 14, Sept accompanied the announcement with the news that lunch costs have nearly doubled. Although she acknowledged it was a lot to ask, she hoped ‘I Bought a Lunch’ could achieve $75,000 by the end of December.
Moose Jaw once again stepped up, breaking past that ceiling to contribute over $100,000.
“I calculate everything to the end of December, so we take (everything into account for) our I Bought a Lunch campaign,” Sept explained. “The official campaign ends in November, but the donations still keep coming. And we did make that goal, and ended at over $100,000.”
For some schoolchildren, the Hunger in Moose Jaw lunch might be their first and best meal of the day. Consistent, nutritionally balanced lunches make a huge difference in how well kids perform in their classes, and in how much they enjoy their school days.
“We made our goal and we are extremely grateful,” Sept added. “As the general public knows, food prices have gone up and, of course, that affects us. Right now, we are sitting at our highest numbers ever — we’re at almost 400 daily lunches.
“This (fundraising) allows us to continue with our program … Every dollar will be put towards food costs in our child nutrition program.”
Hunger in Moose Jaw is supported by some government funding, but the bulk of their budget comes from contributions by Moose Jaw’s residents and business community.
When asked whether she foresees costs continuing to rise, along with the number of children needing support, Sept said she didn’t want to speculate.
“I’m not sure. We take every day just one at a time. We just work with what we have and make sure that those almost 400 lunches go out,” she said. “Then, we do it again the next day. And we just keep going.
“Yes, it’s hard to see that the numbers have gone that high, but we are extremely grateful to the community that’s supporting us to keep going.”
