Editor:
Last week's Coast Reporter would have us believe that one-third of Coast families cannot afford to feed their children breakfast. One-third? I hate to sound heartless, but I find that hard to believe. We don't live in a third-world country. Our food banks are generous. Free bread can often be picked up at the Gibsons Salvation Army store. Meanwhile, fruit often rots on the trees or is left for the bears.
No stranger to tight budgets, I raised two children as a single working mom. It never occurred to me to send them to school without breakfast. How hard is it to set out a bowl of cereal, or better still - and cheaper - a bowl of oatmeal?
Perhaps the problem isn't so much bare cupboards as lack of time or organization. If you're running late, you can always eat at school. It's my understanding that the breakfast provided at school does not single out poorer kids (and rightly so) but is open to everyone. Surely the more muffins and strawberries are spread out for the taking, the more takers there will be.
True, $15 a year per child is not much to keep the school breakfast program going. I will contribute, though my kids are long grown, but I would also hope most parents who use the program can cough up this amount. It looks to me even less than the cost of feeding the child at home. And feeding our young is surely an instinct we share with every animal on the planet.
One last question, perhaps an impertinent one - do these same kids who come to school without breakfast also come without a lunch? And what are we expected to do about that?
Viveca Ohm
Sechelt
