Canada Moms Blog

Stepping up to help out

My daughter attends an elementary school that offers a breakfast program.  Or rather, it's supposed to offer a breakfast program, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  The school is one of many across the province of Quebec that is a part of the Quebec Breakfast Club.  Every morning schools participating in the program offer up hearty breakfasts including scrambled eggs, bagels with cream cheese, waffles, pancakes, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc.  Um, not all at once, it's not a buffet. Still, from one day to the next, they rotate a menu and fill up little bellies before the first bell rings.

Last year my daughter signed up and really enjoyed it.  For her it's not a necessity, rather it's a convenience.  She doesn't enjoy eating right away when she wakes up so it's a bit of a battle to get her to eat her breakfast before getting dressed for school.  When she was a part of the breakfast club she would actually be hungry by the time she sat down to eat and our mornings, while not exactly peaceful were at least not quite as full of nagging.

The thing is, though, there are a startling number of kids in my community who actually do need the program.  It costs $12 per term or $48 per year and if a family can't quite swing that, there are ways to get some help with the payment.  The kids then get a good, solid meal to start off their day five days a week (except for Ped days/holidays of course).  For some of these kids, it's the only way they get any breakfast at all.  If not for the program, they would start their day off hungry, with nothing in their stomach to help them focus on learning.

Moving Day, but Not Today

July 1st is known throughout the country as Canada Day. But here in Québec, it is also known as Moving Day. As their lease ends on June 30, thousands of families take this day off to pack their things in cardboard boxes, pile them up in rented trucks and move to a new house or apartment. Thousands of families cannot enjoy the day’s celebrations because they are too busy trying to fit their huge plasma t.v. through a very small door. We don’t know for sure when and where this tradition started, but it’s been going on for quite a while.

I used to dread July 1st. Back when we had no kids and used to live in small apartments, my man and I used to move every year. I’m not even sure why, but it was like that. And I hated it. I hated boxes. I hated packing, I hated unpacking. I hated wrapping my plates and bowls and glasses in newspaper. I hated cleaning the previous renters’ mess. I hated when the place smelled like a stranger. I hated living in boxes for weeks because we had no time to unpack. I hated having to look through all those stupid boxes to find a pen or a toothbrush. Did I mention I hated boxes? Well, I really did.

And I hated having to do it all over again came next June.