Ron Malmas presented the Rotary Club of Terrace Skeena Valley Starfish Pack program to feed hungry kids. 
In partnership with Coast Mountain School District and Save On Foods Terrace, the Rotary Club of Terrace Skeena Valley have distributed over 7500 Starfish Packs to approx. 150 school children and their families over the last 3 years. Thanks to the hard work of the Rotary Club of Terrace-Skeena Valley, and the generosity of their community, Terrace Starfish is proudly able to serve students at Thornhill Primary, Cassie Hall Elementary, Suwilaawks Community, Skeena Middle School, Parkside Secondary School.
The Starfish packs are funded by individuals and businesses sponsoring a pack for $600 a year and funding from Rotary. The cost of food for the program last year was $82,000 and the anticipated 2021 budget is for $120,000.00: $600 feeds one child every weekend and it is reported that the children we feed are so very thankful.
Visit Starfish in Terrace at starfishpack.com/terrace
The Starfish Pack program was created in Abbotsford in response to teachers linking the food insecurity of their students directly to their ability to learn. Teachers throughout BC are heartbroken to hear their students coming to class Monday morning hungry, reporting that they had not eaten over the weekend. Sadly, many elementary, middle, and high school children have been identified by the Coast Mountain School District in Terrace as being food insecure needing food over the weekend. It has been determined that many children depend on either an in-school breakfast and/or lunch program as their sole source of nutrition during a normal school day. A conservative estimate indicated that over 75% of those students are also going completely without nutritional meals of any kind over a normal two-day weekend.
These backpacks are filled with food for 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners along with healthy snacks and 3 pieces of fruit are going home with each identified student recipients every weekend. Terrace Starfish packs has experienced and responded to the spikes in food insecurity as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, in May of 2020 was able to distribute 170 packs for a few weeks and at the close of school 2020, they were serving 150 children.