Pasqua receives generous donation for school's lunch program
- EFN Staff | December 20, 2016
The Pasqua First Nation recently received a generous donation of $50,000 from Park Derochie Coatings SK Inc., which is one of the community’s partners.
Doug Barker, President of Park Derochie, spoke with the community’s Chief Todd Peigan about their school’s hot lunch program and how the funding was running out.
“The cost to operate it for a year is about $20,000 and we felt that was a good opportunity for Park Derochie to contribute back to their community and support the school,” he says.
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This kind donation made the community members and students very happy.
“It really means a lot to the students. They cheered and they were excited when they seen the cheques. A very heartwarming feeling,” says Twyla Saulteaux, who is the principal at Chief Pasqua Educational Centre. “We are honoured and very happy that they made such a large donation. Our funding was running out in March and we didn’t know what to do. This is going to help us to complete the whole year…to provide hot lunches for the next school year as well.”
Their hot lunch program consists of breakfast, lunch, and a daily snack for approximately 160 students. Some items on their menu includes lasagne, sweet and sour pork with rice, meatloaf, hamburger helper, to name a few – as well as various breakfast items. Their cook, Darlene Daniels, does good meal planning and aims to include a lot of healthy alternatives for the students.
Not only is the school feeding the minds of its students, but also, they are ensuring their students are fed as some students are not fortunate enough to pack a lunch for school.
“We do see a lot of students that come to school daily without a lunch. It’s one way to help the parents in today’s society with low-incomes and majority of the families on our reserve do struggle to make ends meet from month to month. It’s about the kids and making sure their fed,” says Saulteaux.
Park Derochie also donated another $25,000 to the First Nations community to the Sports and Recreation programming. With the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Summer Games and the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) coming up in the summer of 2017, they felt the need to help the youth of the community to play in the two major sporting events.
“We felt we could contribute to that to help the kids and to help some of their costs to their youth development program,” says Barker. “That money is to help the children out, that’s what this is about.”
The school’s hot lunch program even installed a sign above their kitchen with the name and logo of the company in appreciation of their donation.
Park Derochie Coatings SK. Inc., works closely with the community on a number of projects and even provides employment to some of its community members.
“We’re happy to be partners with them,” says Barker.