There's an additional $3,450 to help feed Yellowknife youth thanks to donations to a YK Cares' Santa photo fundraiser held at the Co-op on Saturday.
“We make weekend food kits, that’s all we do,” said Angela Canning, founder of YK Cares.
December 8, 2018.
YK Cares founder Angela Canning holding a weekend food kit. YK Cares makes 40 weekend food kits a week and gives them out at two local schools.
“They go to hungry youth in Yellowknife, and they go to two schools, Mildred Hall and Weledeh."
Each kit is intended to feed one child for the two days of the weekend. The kits include two servings each of breakfast, lunch, supper, morning snacks and afternoon snacks, as well as popcorn, juice and hot chocolate. At the end of every school week, kids take these kits home.
“And these are kids that are already using the food programs in the schools," Canning said. "So they go to school and they have their breakfast, they go to school and they have their lunch, and on the weekend they go home with this as well too, so we’re just filling a gap."
The organization delivered 2,128 weekend food kits to youth in Yellowknife in 2016.
Yellowknife Beverages and YK Co-op sponsored Saturday's Santa photo fundraiser while Shawna Peterson Photography created the images. Photo sessions drummed up $15 donations apiece.
The event has been running for four to five years, said Canning, who added that demand for the kits has been fairly consistent over the years.
“We make 40 per week and they go every week,” she said. “Thanks Yellowknife!”