Huntsville church volunteers help provide meals for high school students

This story has been updated

Every Monday morning at 9 a.m., a group of volunteers gathers in the commercially inspected kitchen facilities of All Saints’ Anglican Church to prepare twenty-five bagged lunches for delivery to Huntsville High School by 11 a.m. 

Each nutritious lunch includes a sandwich made on the premises containing meat, egg, cheese or vegetables, fresh fruit, fresh raw vegetables, and additional packaged items such as a juice box, granola bar, cookies, or cheese and crackers.  

The volunteers, who rotate on a weekly schedule, make the sandwiches, cut vegetables into baggies, and double-check that each meal has adequate caloric value for growing teenagers. Upon delivery, the bagged meals are made available to students on a first-come, ‘grab and go’ basis through the student success centre. 

Huntsville High School provides a breakfast program, established several years ago, available to students that is maintained by local volunteers and staff.  Eighty to a hundred students are served daily.  

The lunch program, initiated by the Huntsville Rotary Club, has operated for several years and has been sustained solely by donations and volunteers to meet an expanding need for students who, for various reasons, face food insecurity. Providing lunches has become an increasing concern for volunteer teacher coordinators and volunteer organizers.     

Trinity United Church, which prepares bagged lunches on Wednesdays and Fridays every week, has been involved through their outreach programs for three years through a network of coordinated volunteers who make the lunches. Between the two church groups involved, seventy-five lunches are distributed to schoolchildren weekly. 

Minister Kelly Baetz, of All Saints’ Anglican Church, the impressive stone church on High Street that has served Huntsville since 1895, points out that there is still a shortfall for food on Tuesday and Thursday, stating, “I suspect what you would find, if we all told our stories, is that there’s a real patchwork of various things happening in the various schools. What we would want to advocate for is to say it needs to be not reactive, right? Just kind of closing the gaps wherever we can and whoever’s willing to jump in. That’s great, and we’re really grateful to be a part of that, but I mean, if children are hungry, then that’s a whole community responsibility, right?”

The Door Youth Centre also provides over a hundred mid-day meals for students on Wednesdays and Fridays.  

Organizing these programs takes input and commitment from a large group of Huntsville community volunteers, many of whom attend and advocate for these services through their respective churches. From synchronizing donations to shopping and food preparations, volunteers have to uphold the highest standards of food safety while securing food items at the most reasonable costs. With an average ‘grab and go’ bag costing between seven to ten dollars apiece, largely funded by parishioners and donors, rising food and travel expenses strain the viability of existing programs, which are only a small portion of the outreach services that both All Saints’ Anglican Church and Trinity United Church provide.  

Canada is the only country within the G7 that does not have a national school food program, explains Peter Kear, a former teacher at HHS and one of the many ardent volunteers from All Saints’ Anglican Church. He echoes both teachers’ and community associates’ apprehensions about the impact of hunger on student learning as foundational to a community’s and a nation’s success.  

According to Statistics Canada, 22.9% of Canadian households struggle with securing enough food for their needs, let alone nutritious food. Lone parents and unattached individuals accounted for more than half of those facing challenges. With grocery prices soaring since the pandemic, the trend is increasing. In Ontario, it is calculated that 1 in 5 students does not have access to enough food to sustain their daily needs. Teachers involved in the Huntsville High School program estimate the statistics are more in the 10% range of student enrolment.  

https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/6257-canadians-are-facing-higher-levels-food-insecurity

Hunger is not the only issue. Long-term ramifications of food insecurity have lingering effects on an individual’s mental health, both in the near and long term. 

“Food insecurity leaves an indelible mark on children’s wellbeing. Experiencing food insecurity at an early age is associated with childhood mental health problems, such as hyperactivity and inattention. Exposure to severe food insecurity (measured as child hunger) has been linked to increased risk of developing depression and suicidal ideation in adolescence and early adulthood,” according to PROOF is an interdisciplinary research program studying effective policy approaches to reduce hunger.  

Studies also indicate that childhood hunger leads to a host of physical and mental health-related diseases in adult life, adding further pressure on community medical and social capacity.  

The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation served 9,598 meals to families and homeless individuals in 2023. The Soup kitchen is open Monday through Thursday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The Salvation Army generously supplies food through its food bank, which is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Clients are seen by appointment. 

Food4Kids Muskoka provides children with food for the weekends.  

There are no simple explanations for or remedies to food insecurity in Ontario. Finger pointing to various causes seems rather meaningless, given the necessity to act.   

“It was really important to us that this is not just about food provision. On the surface, that’s what it looks like, right? We’re just feeding hungry people that need food. But for me, I’ve always considered these to be mental health initiatives and the reason I say that is because in all of the research around mental health today, it’s very clear that the number one factor in promoting good mental health is a sense of belonging or community. And so that’s what we’re building, especially at the breakfast program,” said Hunt, a passionate and long-time activist for providing meals to children. Hunt was responsible from 2013 to 2024 for the success of the Door Youth Centre in connecting with kids. He has now served as part of the breakfast programs at HHS for many years.  

“We’ve been very intentional about making it open to everyone; we often have parents that say, “Oh, I found out my kids go in there, and I told them not to because that’s for kids who need it,” and we’re like, no, we want everybody to come, to avoid the stigma,” according to Hunt. 

“Everybody’s welcome, and it takes away the stigma for the kids that we built a relationship with them over the course of the year,” explains Pauline Webb, an HHS teacher coordinator in these programs and a staunch exponent of food relief in the school system. 

“For some, it’s the first good morning from an adult for the day. Or just the first smile of the day,” both Hunt and Webb share enthusiastically in unison. 

Donations, both financial and pre-packaged food, to assist these ongoing efforts come from a variety of sponsors, individual and corporate. It is the efforts of the cadre of volunteers, shopping and prepping daily meals, members of congregations from All Saints and Trinity, who embody the values and principles of faith.

Want to help?

allsaintshuntsville.ca/giving/

trinityhuntsville.ca/support-trinity

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