Southcentre Mall and the not-for-profit Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids (BB4CK) are launching the "Back to School Together" awareness campaign just before the 2023-24 school year ramps up.
Bethany Ross, executive director at BB4CK, says one in four kids in Calgary is living in a household that has experienced food insecurity in the past year.
To put that into perspective, she says, if there are 12 houses on a street, three of those families have been experiencing food insecurity.
"That's everything from worrying about how we're going to have enough money for groceries next month and being aware of that and thinking about that all the way up to actually skipping meals and cutting back on nutrition and making some really tough choices about who in your family has access to the food that they need," she said.
Ross points to increased rent, food prices, higher utility costs and paying more at the pumps to fuel up vehicles as factors that all combine to stress families financially.
She says BB4CK is gearing up to provide free lunches to more than 6,500 kids daily from September to June.
Alexandra Velosa, marketing manager at Southcentre Mall, says partnering with BB4CK will give the charity more exposure within the community.
"We wanted to bring some interactive displays, so kids come and enjoy and have some fun while their parents get an opportunity to read what Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids is about," she said.
The space allotted in the mall is regularly used to highlight the work of Calgary charities.
"We see a big difference when the charity comes to the mall because they get an opportunity to showcase what they do to everyone in the community," Velosa said.
Adela Residovic, a volunteer with BB4CK, typically delivers lunches to students at school after other volunteers have made them at one of a number of kitchens around the city.
"Food plays such an important role in our lives," she said.
"I think sometimes, we forget about it. I think it seems more like a hassle than something that should be celebrated and made important."
Residovic says she regularly tells the kitchen volunteers how excited the school kids are to receive their lunches.
"They run up to you and they want to know exactly what's in their lunch bags because they get so excited," she said.
"They immediately recognize that brown bag and they know exactly what that means -- that they're going to be getting food for that day. That means they're going to get nourished that day and they're going to be able to learn even more that day."
Ross says there's an important social component to making sure a child has a lunch.
"It's around the cafeteria table the kids are making friends and telling jokes and talking about their weekends and telling stories and if you're the kid who doesn't have food in front of you, it's so much harder to participate in that space," she said.
"If we just give you food, you can be there, you can make those friends, you can have those connections, you can tell the jokes, you can do the things that make you a part of that school community. It connects you, it builds your social skills (and) it helps make sure that you have those connections."
The BB4CK installation runs from Aug. 16 to Sept. 15 at Southcentre Mall, where visitors are encouraged to participate in interactive games, learn about what BB4CK does and make donations.
