Cross-community Connections for Child Poverty

Dr. X presented at our Health and Wellness Collaborative meeting about child poverty…We have 40% child poverty on Gabriola, which is much higher than… Nanaimo’s like 21%...It’s a massive problem. So there was somebody who sat at that meeting, just a community member. I think he’s a Lion. That’s why he was there, because he was invited to come hear about these things. So he went back to the Lions and then to other people, and within a month, there was a lunch program at the school that was being fully funded by outside operators that had nothing to do with any of us. But had we not had that meeting and done that presentation and talked about child poverty as a health issue in our community, there would not be a lunch program at the school right now. And that’s part of what the Collaborative kind of does.