The Beaver Valley Outreach launched a new lunch program at Beaver Valley Community School in October and now their staff and volunteers make about 30 lunches a day.
For $4 a lunch, kids can pick up things like spaghetti and meat sauce, quesadillas, chicken caesar salad, breaded chicken fingers and homemade lasagna. Lunches are served on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is pizza day at school already.
All the meals are completely hand made by BVO staff member Sharon Baker, with the help of volunteers. Menus are drafted each month based on the advice of a volunteer nutritionist and according to Canada Food Guide.
Sign-up sheets are available online, and once the menus are posted, students can sign up for the meals they would like to have.
Student volunteers deliver lunches to the younger grades and older students pick up their plates in the kid's club room at BVCS rented by the BVO for their kids club and their breakfast and lunch programs.
BVO executive director Carolyn Letourneau said she's happy with the way the program is going so far, adding that they've had up to 48 lunches ordered one week.
It's the first time she's undertaken the chore of organizing a lunch program, so there's a lot of learning as things happen. She spent about one and a half years researching lunch programs elsewhere before deciding to start the one in Beaver Valley.
Most of the appliances they needed to run the kitchen were donated to the Treasure Shop. They only had to purchase a refurbished industrial dishwasher.
"We're trying to figure the program out to make it work for everybody," she said.
She knows the BVO will never make money on the program and she isn't sure that the costs will be covered without extra funding, however, it fits with the mandate of the BVO.
"We're trying to meet the needs of families in the community," said Letourneau.
So far, feedback has been positive, the school principal even ordered food for a board meeting one day. One mom even reported that her child told her to take cooking lessons from Sharon Baker.
Letourneau said there's someone new every week ordering lunch, and she hopes that it continues to grow, that it can sustain itself and that people who need it are aware that it's there for them.
Financial help is also available for families that can't afford the cost of the lunches.
Eventually she wants to have an "around the world" theme with recipes from local families that reflect their cultural backgrounds or traditions.
Anyone interested in donating to the BVO lunch program can contact Carolyn Letourneau at (519) 599-2577 ext. 21. The BVO always welcomes volunteers.
