Lunches for Learning feeds Edmonton kids who experience food insecurity at select Edmonton Catholic and Edmonton Public schools by offering a peer-led lunch program every Tuesday during the school year.

Mission

Our kids-helping-kids approach assists in the development of ethical and community-minded youth and ensures that a healthy lunch is accessible to students in need, removing barriers to their success.

We believe that:

  • engaging in social justice strengthens community and creates empathetic, ethical citizens.
  • every child should have access to nutritious food.
  • we must serve children, volunteers, and board members with respect.
  • all children, regardless of social status, have the right to dignity, respect and pride.
  • we have a role in fostering a culture of philanthropy in our youth.
  • it is our responsibility to advocate for children.

Values

To support those beliefs, the following values guide our actions and our work:

  • Empathy: We understand the feelings and experiences from the perspective of others.
  • Inclusion: We foster diversity by accommodating everyone.
  • Assertiveness: We stand up for our rights and the rights of others in a calm, positive way, without aggression or passive acceptance of unjust situations.
  • Leadership: We motivate one another towards achieving a common goal.
  • Dignity: We commit to valuing and respecting students, school staff, board members, volunteers, and all of our external relationships.
  • Respect: All people deserve to be treated with consideration and dignity.
  • Integrity: We commit to acting in an ethical and honest manner.
  • Discretion: We preserve the dignity of the people whom we serve, and each other, by honouring privacy.
  • Communication: We commit to genuine, open and honest communications between board members, volunteers, students, school staff and the general public.
  • Interpersonal skills: We value effective, respectful interactions with all those with whom we work and interact.
  • Relationships: We value and respect the relationships that sustain our work and our mission.
  • Teamwork: We commit to effective partnerships between volunteers, between schools, with donors, suppliers and volunteers and we seek opportunities to form alliances with others.
  • Accountability: We commit to achieving and reporting results and to using all funder and donor dollars prudently and volunteer hours wisely.
  • Ethical behaviour: We respect the dignity, diversity and rights of all those with whom we work and serve, and will conduct ourselves in a manner that does no harm.

Supporting 11 schools with 225 lunches per week