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.
Daybreak Rotary Club in Williams Lake recently received a financial boost from the Lakers Car Club for the Starfish Program to the tune of $5,000.
Penticton’s KVR Middle School Grade 7 students finished off their work helping out at the Elks Lodge with packing the last Starfish bags of the year on Wednesday.
Twenty-four Grade seven students and their teacher from Penticton’s KVR Middle School came out to help at the Elks Lodge with packing Starfish bags on Wednesday morning, eager to give back.
An increased need for Starfish Packs for students in Abbotsford schools means that the Archway Community Services program can no longer meet the demand in its existing space.
Currently, 730 students in 41 elementary, middle, and high schools receive a weekly pack full of food to eat over the weekend when they don’t have access to school meals. Now halfway through the school year 12,494 packs have already been delivered and the Starfish Pack Program expects to distribute more than 25,700 packs by the end of the school year.
The Abbotsford chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles recently donated just over $1,200 to the Starfish Pack program.
The money was raised from an Oktoberfest bash and from a Nearly Neil concert featuring entertainer Bobby Bruce with his tribute to Neil Diamond. Both events were held at the local Eagles Hall.
For some Cariboo students, a backpack filled with food and dropped off at school is how they eat on weekends.
Volunteers from the Rotary Club of Williams Lake gather weekly to fill backpacks — called Starfish Packs — with food and then deliver them to the five elementary schools in town (Cataline, Nesika, Marie Sharpe, Mountview and Chilcotin Road). The students in need take the backpacks home from school on Fridays and then bring them back to school empty on Mondays.
This past year, thanks to the support of our generous community, and an incredible team of volunteers, the Archway Starfish Pack Program surpassed 10 years of operation in Abbotsford.
In the past decade, volunteers have packed and delivered over 70,000 packs to local students at their schools to take home over the weekend. These 70,000 packs don’t even include all the packs provided over the summer months while school is out.
A church is helping feed young families in need by donating $10,000 from the sale of one of its buildings to a school program.
Cheam View United Church sold Rosedale United Church earlier this year and one member suggested they donate a portion of the money to the Starfish Pack program which provides food to kids in the Chilliwack School District and their families.