Blake and Stacy Brownridge of Arcola operate Ridgeline Agriservices, a local distributor of Dupont Pioneer seeds. As part of Dupont Pioneer’s community initiatives they offer funding through their Full Belly! Full Mind! program, which focuses on ensuring children have food to eat in order to concentrate better at school.
On Friday, Dec. 1, Dan Graf (Community Education Liaison) of Arcola School was very excited to accept the generous donation of $1,500 to support the school’s breakfast program.
“In order to operate the school breakfast program we need approximately $4,000 a year, so this donation will go a long ways,” Graf stated.
“It’s more than just a breakfast program too. There’s also snacks set out for the day in both the high school end and the elementary end. Whatever’s needed. It’s available to all students, so there’s no stigma surrounding it and we even have a couple of students who volunteer with the program. They come in early to put the food out, clean up, come up with grocery lists; which has been a huge help to me and they’re giving back to their school community.”
“We also have a school nutrition policy, so we’re encouraging all the students to eat healthy as well.”
Nichol added, “This program is available through our independent sales agents who work with schools all across Canada.”
In 2016 the Full Belly! Full Mind! initiative donated more than $100,000 to support over 50 breakfast and nutrition programs across Canada and 2017 is looking like it will reach even more.
“Our agency covers from Stoughton to Carlyle, so it’s nice to be able to give back to local communities,” Stacy explained. “Arcola is kind of central to that coverage area, so we decided to work with them this first time.”
“Food helps kids stay focused.”
