Family and Community Support Services, Freson IGA and the Co-op have devised a winning recipe for the lunch program at Barrhead Elementary School, and organizers will now purchase 100 per cent of their groceries in Barrhead.
FCSS executive director Gladys Friedrich said she is pleased an agreement has been put in place and organizers will spend their entire grocery budget locally. School lunch co-ordinator Melissa Schwindt and her volunteers will shop at IGA for two weeks a month, and then at the Co-op the other two weeks. Both the Co-op and the IGA are accommodating the program, which means prices will not increase for parents.
Friedrich said after the article appeared in the Leader, she wa contacted by the grocery stores.
“Melissa will have two weeks at the Co-op and two weeks at Freson IGA buying products for the lunch program,” Friedrich said.
Another issue organizers of the lunch program face is a lack of containers in which to put the hot food. Friedrich said it would have cost thousands of dollars every month to obtain those containers, and that’s money the program does not have. Now, those containers will also be ordered through IGA.
“We’ve never had that before,” Friedrich said.
Both grocery stores are more than willing to co-operate, she said, and added Schwindt negotiated with IGA and the Co-op and they are coming through with what the program requires.
That means no trips into Edmonton, and the prices will not increase for parents,” Friedrich said. “Everything seems to be working very well. Melissa is feeling good about the new agreement. She gave them the list of prices she would get in Edmonton, and they are working with that.”
The Co-op general manager Allan Cote said when he met with FCSS, he told them he has every intention of supporting the lunch program, and his staff is prepared to work with FCSS.
“We’ve looked at the items they need, and the products we have, and we can make the pricing work for them,” Cote said. “It will take purchasing items in different ways than they are used to, and in some cases it is even going to save them some money.”
Cote said he is meeting with department managers to see if there is anything else they can do to support the program.
Freson IGA manager Aaron Coutts said he wasn’t aware FCSS was leaving Barrhead to find deals elsewhere. He said he had discussed the issue about two years ago, and had he known about the program’s needs, he would have met with FCSS a long time ago.
“I always support kids,” he said. “We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure Melissa shops here. We’re a local business with 70 to 80 employees who depend on this town for their employment, and guaranteed some of them have children who eat the hot lunches at the school. I want to keep Barrhead residents shopping in Barrhead.”
Coutts said the IGA is just the same as grocery stores in the city. It may be a little bit smaller, and prices are higher due to transportation costs, but most of the time sale prices are pretty comparable. Staff at IGA are going to take care of everything, he said, which means the program is also going to save in terms of work done by the co-ordinator for shopping. Furthermore, IGA will be hosting several other fundraisers closer to September to support the lunch program.
“There’s nothing worse than seeing a child go hungry,” Coutts said.
The school lunch program was established more than 10 years ago, and has helped provide hot, nutritious meals to students. Today, parents pay $2.50 per child per day. Spending $45 to $50 on lunches for a month is considerably less than a parent would pay if they were providing their own lunches, Friedrich said. With parents providing the money to the program, co-ordinators seek the best possible deals.
There are 125 children whose parents take advantage of the lunch program, and because it’s on a month-to-month basis, there can be anywhere up to 180 children being fed a hot lunch. For some parents who aren’t able to afford the hot lunches, subsidies are available to them, and the FCSS has never turned down any request, Friedrich said.
