The COVID-19 pandemic might have put an end to regular, in-school classroom learning for the rest of the year, but Pemberton has banded together to make sure its students-and their counterparts in neighbouring communities-are still getting lunches.
During the Sea to Sky School Board meeting-via Zoom-last Wednesday, April 8, Phillip Clarke, director of instruction, learning services, was overcome with emotion describing the various businesses and organizations that have been working hard to make that happen.
"It's this beautiful community assembly-sorry, I get a little emotional-we're all coming together to figure it out and get through this," he said. "We'll be changing some of the models of deliveries in a couple weeks and we'll work to get that information out to our families. We'll reassess our model and maybe by May we'll be doing something completely different because we realize this was a great idea to start but there's a better way of doing it.
"It's been really inspiring to be doing this work."
That work has taken place across the Sea to Sky, but Clarke highlighted that in Pemberton, partners have included the Pemberton Food Bank (which does "an awesome job getting care packages to everyone that needs it"), but also Grimm's Deli and the Pemberton Valley Supermarket.
"Grimm's has put together 55 sandwiches and some fruit, and [from] the grocery store we're buying hot breakfast cereal and some granola bars and nutritional items there, and they then go to the high school where our principals are coordinating and our CUPE staff, Indigenous support workers, and my admin assistant Linda, and our bus garage is figuring out what's the most efficient way to get the food to these separate communities-whether it's D'Arcy or Mount Currie or just Pemberton proper-and following all these logic models that everyone's been putting together on the fly. But everybody is stepping up."
Last Wednesday marked the first day the food program was organized for reserve communities both north and south of Pemberton, said Susan Leslie, district principal of Aboriginal education.
"ISWs [Indigenous support workers] came in and sorted the lunches, put them in delivery-area boxes and then delivered to all reserves in the north and Pemberton community, as well as to the south," Leslie said. "We keep collecting and updating information to add families who may need support and to look at best ways to support families in the future in the coming weeks."
Mark Mendonca, owner of Grimm's Deli, said the principal at Pemberton Secondary School suggested the school board reach out to him about quickly putting together the lunches on a short-term contract.
"During that initial chat, the numbers went from 52 to 72," Mendonca said. "That's what it will be ongoing. Obviously, there's a pretty big need in the community for a lunch program-that's a big number."
As he was working on the lunch program last week, he realized that many of the kids might not be getting an Easter treat. So he reached out to several businesses-including I.D.A. Frontier Street Pharmacy, RONA, Scotia Bank, and AC Petroleum-and they quickly put together Easter baskets to send along with last Thursday's lunches.
"They all got delivered and there's lots of appreciation going on out there for that," he says.
Meanwhile, Mendonca said he witnessed another Pembertonian's act of kindness recently.
"We had a local come in-a regular to the deli; she wishes to remain anonymous-but she provided us with enough money to feed all of the essential workers," he said. "She provided enough money to feed all the fire fighters, ambulance attendants, the bank, post office, two grocery stores, RONA, and now we're working on the health centre-each got a meal. We've been delivering pizza for these locations ... There are a lot of acts of kindness."
If you live in Pemberton or its surrounding area and need food bank assistance-or would like to make a donation to the Pemberton Food Bank-visit sscs.ca/programs/pemberton-food-bank/.
