The Preeceville School hosted an appreciation breakfast that showed its gratitude and appreciation to the many volunteers who helped with the Breakfast Café on June 24 when organizers prepared a hot breakfast that followed the Canada Food Guide.
Heidi Paterson, Sarah DeRuiter and Zlata Kovcic were the organizers for the Café.
“The Preeceville School Breakfast Café has had a very successful year,” said Heidi Paterson. “Thanks to our volunteers and our food mentor Zlata Kovcic, we have had a tremendous increase in the number of student visits.
“Our biggest problem is trying to keep the fruit stocked up,” Paterson said. “What a great issue to have.”
The Preeceville School Breakfast Café is a proud recipient of $10,000 as a result of its submission to the Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge, in addition to a grant from the Community Initiative Fund.
“For the 2016-2017 school year, our Breakfast Café program will be undergoing a makeover to create a Newcomer Nutritional Outreach Program which will augment our existing Breakfast Café program,” she said. “Currently our school has the second largest student population of English as an Additional Language (EAL) in the Good Spirit School Division.
“We have identified a need from our new immigrant families for resources to help them learn about the food available in Canadian grocery stores, how to prepare it, and nutrition planning, for example to support high intensity athletes.
“In the fall, we will be hiring a person to be our food mentor for the Breakfast Café program and to plan/host nutrition workshops for our new immigrant families.”
Another component of the Breakfast Café program that is planned for next year is developing a sustainable program, she said. “With nearly three dozen students visiting per day, we need help opening up the home economics room, welcoming the students to come pick-up some food, and assisting with clean-up.
“In particular, we are looking for businesses to volunteer an employee (or more than one employee) to host a Breakfast Café once a month for the duration of one month,” she said, encouraging persons interested in volunteering to contact Sarah DeRuiter at the school.
“We would like to express our appreciation to The Mosaic Company, the Saskatchewan School Boards Association, and the Community Initiative Fund for supporting the expansion of the Breakfast Café program during the upcoming year,” she said.
The program has expanded through the years, going from offering cereal boxes to hot breakfasts with specials every week.
“Some of the money from the grant will be used for storage and a counter,” DeRuiter said. “For the most part it will be used toward funding for food and building a stronger program that will be sustainable.”
