Juniper School students received racks of snacks from Thompson Safeway on March 9 as the grocery store took its turn feeding hungry students as part of the Toonies for Tummies campaign.
An initiative of the Grocery Foundation, a non-profit supported by food, beverage and other companies, Toonies for Tummies takes in-store donations and uses them to provide healthy food to students who need it.
The food delivered by Safeway employees on March 9 included oranges, water, cookies and sandwiches with meat and cheese, said Thompson Safeway store manager Ashish Errappa.
“We’re just trying to stay within the diet they told us,” he said, which focuses on healthy, low-sugar foods.
The local Safeway’s Toonies for Tummies program is supporting the snack program at Juniper and the breakfast program at Wapanohk Community School, said Errappa, who invited other businesses and groups in Thompson to support the programs and those at other schools as well. For the first snack donation, the school and the store decided to deliver the snacks from classroom to classroom, with help from school staff, student council members and Thompson RCMP Special Const. Rob Cleveland, who regularly assists with the snack program.
