Healthy Snacks Program Fills in a Gap for Struggling Families

Throughout the entire school year, The Salvation Army in Abbotsford, B.C., runs a program that allows students ranging from kindergarten to Grade 12 to have access to nutritious snacks at any time while at school. The program is called Pantry34.

This initiative started over 15 years ago to fill a need and to complement other school meal programs. Pantry34 helps alleviate stress for families struggling to provide for their children.

Kimberly Hissink, fundraising coordinator at The Salvation Army in Abbotsford, explains how the program operates.

“We get in touch with the schools at the beginning of the school year and our chef provides them with a form with all the options for ordering the snacks. Then the schools send in their forms every week,” she said.

Once the orders are taken and prepared by staff at The Salvation Army, a community partner helps with the delivery to the schools, which usually have a room or kitchen area where they can store the snacks.

Teachers or school support workers have the discretion to select students who will benefit from the program.

What differentiates Pantry34 from other meal programs, is that it is more discreet, and students can access the snacks upon request.

“We keep it quiet within the school because they try to make the kids feel safe and not feeling exposed in order to get the services.”

“It’s very anonymous. We keep it quiet within the school because they try to make the kids feel safe and not feeling exposed in order to get the services,” Community Ministries Director, Robert Studiman, explained.

A key highlight of Pantry34 is its focus on providing healthy options to students. This initiative helps students shift their appetite to healthy food and drinks by limiting access to processed products and by encouraging them to follow these nutritious ways outside of school.

Good nutrition also helps development and academic performance.

“If you are working with students and students are hungry, they’ll have low concentration levels and have a hard time being in a group environment because their stomachs are rumbling. As soon as a teacher or an educational assistant recognizes that a student is hungry, they’ll send them down to get food or snacks,” Robert added. “We like to make it quite mobile so that the students can be in and out quickly and they can get a snack that they can take with them and stick in their pocket.”

“As soon as a teacher or an educational assistant recognizes that a student is hungry, they’ll send them down to get food or snacks.”

Pantry34 currently serves approximately 2,500 students annually across 27 schools. The program runs on the generous support of the community. There are sponsorship opportunities for those interested in helping the program thrive.

“The Pantry34 program has provided our at-risk students with snacks. The snacks feed our students and make them feel cared for. We are so grateful to The Salvation Army for running this program,” said Nancy Custodio, a youth care worker at a local school.

By Juan Romero