Food4Kids feeding low-income students amid COVID-19 school closures

A local non-profit is spending at least $30,000 to keep feeding some of the city's low-income students.

Food4Kids normally runs a school-referral program which sends kids bags of healthy meals to eat on Fridays and the weekend, but that was nixed when schools shut down because of the novel coronavirus.

While these 1,300 students won't have to think about going to class until at least April 6 due to the province closing schools, their food insecurity problems will be even more of a concern, prompting the charity organization to act fast.

Cathy Haan, the group's executive director, tells CBC News it is sending kids $25 grocery gift cards to spend at Fortinos and No Frills locations across the city.

"We are one by one mailing the gift cards to the kids in our program so very quickly we worked with the school on the Friday before March Break to get the addressed of our kids together," Haan said.

"These are the families that are most in need in Hamilton."

Students will receive the cards every two weeks for however long they are out of school and so will other kids in the same household. It's all the more important as the school closures have also taken away access to breakfast programs many of the same students use.

But the gift cards are more expensive than the typical food bag. It normally costs $26,000 to prep food bags for the same amount of time. The $30,000 worth of cards only covers until April 5.

The organization is appealing for donations and recently received a $50,000 donation from the Hamilton Bulldogs Foundation.

"There's more demand being put on food banks, there's more need right now," Haan said.

"It doesn't matter to us how long the duration goes, we will continue this expense ... we will find a way for as long as we can."