Charity organization Nourish Cowichan has directly witnessed the impact an ongoing pandemic and a soaring cost of living has on children. For over 1,200 students in the Cowichan Valley school district this year, it has meant not having stable access to breakfast or lunch.
Nourish’s program, which is funded by the Cowichan Valley community, corporate sponsors, grants and local fundraising efforts, feeds students who otherwise would arrive at, and attend school with empty bellies.
But, with the number of students they’re supporting at an all-time high and their sponsor and donation-based funding being squeezed by the economic downturn, Nourish needs more support to continue their work.
“It is stressful because, one way or the other, we are commited to making the program work. So, we need to find more ways to secure the necessary funding. With the increased cost of living, people are giving a little less and rightfully so. We have not lost our sponsors, but we need to find more donors to match the increasing demand of our services,” says Nourish’s Co-founder Fatima Da Silva.
Last school year, they supported around 800 students across 17 schools, but this year, they are supporting over 1,200 students across 20 Cowichan Valley schools. Consequently, their projected budget of $700,000 for this school year has jumped closer to $1 million.
Currently, they’re at about half of that projected budget.
Nourish is now putting out a call to the community for more corporate sponsors, donations, and volunteer work so they can continue providing students in need with breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and weekend grocery bags.
“We’ve never operated from a position of ‘no, we cannot do that’; We have a policy of never saying ‘no’ to schools in our district that request to be part of the program. That can make our job really hard because we are constantly procuring more funding to keep up with the needs that our community faces,” says Da Silva.
Since 2016, the program has grown exponentially, as it originally started with supporting only one school.
With the help of over 50 community volunteers, board members, and their donors, they have been able to rise to the ever-increasing call from families in need.
Nourish is hoping to get more of the community involved in their equity and community-focused work, whether that be through donations, pledges, sponsorship or even volunteering so they can continue doing this work in the most sustainable way possible.
If you are interested in supporting Nourish Cowichan, please reach out at nourishcowichan@gmail.com to hear more about how you can help and what your efforts will be going towards. Or, you can visit their website’s donation page.
