“We believe every child should have access to a regular, nutritious diet,” Mary Jackson, President of the [Kalamalka Starfish] Society, said. Read the full article below:
Food insecurity appears to be growing in the North Okanagan as the Kalamalka Starfish Society continues to see an increased demand for free meal kits.
The group says funding is critical to ensure students continue to have access to Starfish Bags that provide food insecure elementary and middle school students with a weekend food kit:
The Starfish program provides 240 weekend bags of food to 20 elementary, middle and alternate schools in the North Okanagan. The food bags are a lifeline for students living in a state of food insecurity, providing them with two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, snacks, veggies and fruit over the weekends.
But the problem of food insecurity doesn’t go away when school is out for the summer:
The Abbotsford Grand Squares raised almost $2,200 for the Starfish Pack Program during a benefit dance on March 8th, 2025.
The Community Matters Award has been presented once per year since 2015 as a way to formally recognize community partners who have exceeded their community service mandate. Organizations and individuals who have made a significant contribution to Abbotsford school district students can be nominated.
The committee said that they chose Starfish Pack as the award recipient because they support such a large number of students and schools across the district. Read the full article below:
The Rotary Club of North Delta and its foundation donated $43,558 to community groups and to student bursaries during the year ending June 30, 2022, mainly to Delta and Surrey groups with a focus on providing services to North Delta residents.
Those funds are separate from the club’s Starfish Pack program, which currently deliver 1,300 pounds of food each week to 132 local elementary school children.
The annual Train the Trainer event proved to be another successful outing for the Abbotsford Innovative Fitness location.
IF Abbotsford raised a total of $26,150 for the Starfish Pack and Health in Motion during the event on Friday (Nov. 25).
Small acts of kindness by Delta residents are adding up to help local children facing food insecurity at home.
The Delta Community Foundation (DCF) donated a total of $1,500 to the Rotary Club of North Delta and South Delta Baptist Church, operators of the North Delta and South Delta Starfish Pack programs.
All of the money donated was collected a few coins at a time via “kindness meters” installed around the city.
After starting with just three students in 2020, the Similkameen Starfish Pack program has grown to support 16, and so has the need for financial support for the program.
The Starfish Pack program provides students at Cawston Elementary School and Similkameen Elementary Secondary School with food to take home over the weekends.
For the last six years, the Starfish Backpack program has been feeding school children in need.
Every week, the child receives a grocery bag full of food from the Kamloops Food Bank.
“It hits their hearts when they hear children don’t have food, and I think that’s something for all of us that’s impossible to understand. There are children in our communities that don’t have food when they go home,” said Kamloops Food Bank executive director Bernadette Siracky.