Brown Bagging For Calgary’s Kids
Annual Report
January – August 2022
LOOKING BACK
This was a year of exciting progress for the BB4CK community! You showed up, together, to ensure thousands of kids have access to the food they need – what an incredible impact! In this report, you will read all sorts of stories of a creative, committed, passionate community that is doing everything possible to ensure kids have access to the food they need.
But first, an administrative note: you will notice that this annual report represents a shorter fiscal year than usual. BB4CK made the decision to change our fiscal year going forward to coincide with the school calendar year. The next annual report will reflect a full calendar year from Sept 2022 to Aug 2023.
This year, the community showed up to personify our vision: A future where communities ensure no kids go hungry. People in this community – volunteering their time, giving financially and doing so much more – worked hard every day this year to realize this vision
In these 8 months, the community showed up to care for kids in their community by hosting fundraisers, volunteering their time and giving what they could. We learned, we collaborated, and we celebrated together.
Together, in just 6 short months, we made 401,100 lunches for kids in schools in the four quadrants of our city! We saw an increase in the number of kids that needed lunch by 11% from January 2021 to the end of the school year in June 2021.
For the first time, we collaborated with day camps during the summer months to provide 5,900 lunches, ensuring kids had the energy they needed every camp day.
We grew our community of monthly donors by 13%, and together we gave $1,531,948 to ensure kids receive the food they need to learn, grow, play and be the best they can be.
It all starts with one hungry kid, one sandwich, and one caring connection. This year, we did what it took to care for kids in our community together.
THE NUMBERS
Volunteer hours
Lunches Made
Kids Feed
Number of Schools
Summer Camp Lunches
BB4CK Kitchens
Hunger Heroes - Monthly Donors
Community Fundraisers & Events
THANK YOU DONORS
As a community-funded organization, we can’t do our work without the support of many donors whose generosity amazed us every day!
THE IMPACT
A few weeks ago, our bin lists had more lunches allocated to Monday, which resulted in a slight overage at some schools. With some extra sandwiches on hand, ‘School Champion’ Ms. J decided to go around and see if anyone was interested in some extras that day.
Along the way, she found herself at the door of a grade 6 class. She told the class she had a few sandwiches to give away and asked if anyone was interested. She noticed a student raised her hand very slightly and discreetly as she was scanning the room. The gesture was so light, it would have been missed if her eye hadn’t have caught it in that second.
Ms. J brought the sandwich over and let the little girl know there were sandwiches and more at the office every day, and she was welcome to have them any time. It is hard to imagine, but this student is not always at school. She has very sporadic attendance and struggles to fit in. After receiving her sandwich that day, Ms. J greeted the little girl at the office the next day and the day after that! Soon our little sixth-grader had attended her first full week of school in two years! She has now consistently been at school for three weeks in a row!
2022-2023 VISION
As we look to the coming year, there is much to be grateful for and celebrate in connecting kids to the food they need. We are doubling down on our commitment to creating a future where no child goes hungry, and will continue to empower Calgarians to take action to feed and care for kids in our city. This year, we will continue to take action in pursuing innovative and lasting solutions to combat food insecurity in Calgary.
In the year to come, we will continue growing our efforts to ensuring kids in school have access to healthy food. With rising food costs and increasing food insecurity, the importance of feeding kids is s only increasing.In addition, This year we are launching a one-year pilot program. The Moving from “For” to “With” project (FTW) invites families in our community to share their lived-experience with food insecurity to help design future programs and increase capacity for the sector to provide dignified, experience-informed programming to address food insecurity in Calgary. Program participants connect with each other, receive income-focused support that increases their ability to purchase food while providing feedback on how food supports can best be delivered. We look forward to sharing more about this pilot program this year.
Finally, we will continue feeding kids over the summer months, expanding this program in 2023 and collaborating with partners to ensure that kids have access to food all summer.
I am so grateful to the BB4CK community, our staff and our Board for showing up every day to ensure that kids have access to food, in the most impactful ways possible.
This will be the year we learn even more about how food impacts kids in our community by collecting outcome measurements and data. We know that gathering data will allow us to be better at tackling kids’s food insecurity. This will help us continue to be responsive and resilient in offering supports that truly meet kid’s needs.
We know that, in all of this work, our community will show up – caring for kids, empowering and passionate in doing what they can to make sure every kid has the food they need.
Bethany Ross
Executive Director
How You Can Help
DONATE
Give to make sure kids receive the food they need to learn, grow and reach their fill potential
Volunteer
Give your time to make sure kids receive the food they need to learn, grow and reach their full potential
FUNDRAISE
Host a fundraiser to make sure kids in our city receive the food they need to reach their full potential
Raise awareness
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