Food Programs
Our weekday Breakfast Program ensures students and families of Lord Strathcona Elementary (attached to our building) start their school days with a healthy breakfast. We regularly serve on average 175 breakfasts/day. That's 33,000 breakfasts during the school year. Amazing right? Each meal costs about $2.50, including staff time.
The breakfasts put out by Strathcona Community Centre’s Food Security Team are also unbelievably delicious. Quiche, oatmeal, breakfast burritos, french toast, smoothies and always a choice of fruit, these meals get kids excited about eating nutritious food AND coming to school.
“Food security is a basic need and also a prerequisite to student learning. The breakfast program plays an integral roll in setting up many Strathcona students for a successful day at school” - Jason Eng, Principal, Lord Strathcona Elementary
Backpack Program 
The Backpack Program, provides healthy food access to families each Friday for 48 weeks a year. We currently have 650 participants from 145 low income families receiving food through our weekly Backpack markets. The Backpack Program was designed to help families with supplies of food over the weekends—filling the gap when kids aren’t able to access our school-based programs. Every Friday the Strathcona Community Centre’s Backpack Program provides 145 local families with produce and staples like fresh produce, eggs, bread, tofu, and when able, yogurt and meat. Much of the food for the Backpack Program food is donated by community partners, but most of it needs to be purchased.
A Food Charter, a framework for the development of a centre-wide food policy, was drafted in fall 2019, followed by a campaignto gather input and feedback from the community centre membership and staff. This document was approved by the board in May 2019 and can be found here.