Kingston school lunch program delivering food boxes to families struggling with inflation

The cost of inflation is affecting many families in Kingston, and now a local school lunch program is providing healthy meals to students through the summer.

With the school year at a close, the Food Sharing Project warehouse would usually be quiet.

But this summer, volunteers will be working away, explains executive director Andy Mills, as he packs up boxes filled with groceries.

“We’re going to be providing food boxes, healthy nutritious food to families in need.”

The organization provides free school lunches to elementary and high school students in the Kingston area.

Mills says with the rising cost of food and inflation, those same kids still need help, and so the program has been extended.

“Some families are finding it hard to make things meet, especially with utilities and fuel for their car to get to work,” he says, “and the cost of food.”

The boxes are filled with things like bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, and cereal. They are delivered every two weeks to more than 450 families in Kingston.

The summer program began as a way to help students at home at the start of the pandemic, says Mills, but three years later, and with skyrocketing costs for parents, demand has remained steady.

Helping pack boxes, Macy Briand, a fourth year Queen’s University summer student with The Food Sharing Project, says it is about helping bridge the gap from one school year to the next.

“I was definitely shocked by the number of families that needed help,” she said. “It’s definitely educated me just in general the widespread need in Kingston there is for food nutrition and aid. In the summer, students aren’t even at school so they’re not getting the resources that they get there.”

The organization says their own food and supply costs have gone up nearly 20 per cent in some cases. Mills says it is relying on cash donations to provide the service.

“We’ll get this year, we’ll help people out, and we’ll look ahead to next year as well,” he says.