SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife resident is giving back to her community by selling reusable grocery bags for the Food First Foundation.

Mildred Hall education assistant and cook Pamela-Weeks-Beaton, left, Food First Foundation chair Katie Randall, and Bags 4 Breakfast co-creator Shantana Wood are working together to feed students breakfast. Bags 4 Breakfast is a Royal Roads University student-run business which sells reusable grocery bags online, with proceeds going to the foundation, which funds breakfast programs at Mildred Hall School in Yellowknife and Kaw Tay Whee School in Dettah. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

Shantana Wood, a student at Royal Roads University, an online education university operating out of Colwood, B.C., along with the help of four teammates – all from B.C. -- created the business Bags 4 Breakfast, which started selling the bags online Jan. 27 at www.bags4breakfast.ca. Proceeds raised in the fundraiser, which ends Feb. 27, go to the Food First Foundation.

"We chose to give our profits to Food First Foundation, Northwest Territories division, because many children in the North are going to school without breakfast, which affects their ability to learn," the group explains in the mission statement on their company website.

"As university students, education is something we value highly and we feel that every child has a right to learn. If children are unable to concentrate in school it can affect their future."

Wood came up with the idea after she reached into her purse during a brainstorming session and found a reusable bag there.

"One of the requirements was that the link had to make sense between the revenue and the charity, so with bags, grocery shopping, and food it all tied together," she explained.

Bags 4 Breakfast sells the bags, available in a variety of colours for $10, at least $7 of which goes directly to the foundation. After the required five weeks of business, the team will gather their revenue and send it to the charity.

"We started searching for manufacturers and where we could get the best price and have a logo put on it while keeping our costs down," Wood said. "The lower the cost the more money goes to the charity."

The foundation was more than happy to receive the support, according to chairperson Katie Randall.

"I was really excited to get the e-mail from Shantana in the beginning," Randall said. "It was really nice to hear that someone in the community heard of us and wanted to support the work that Food First does."

The Food First foundation uses donations to support breakfast and snack programs in schools, directly funding breakfast programs in two schools: Mildred Hall and Kaw Tay Whee School in Dettah. They also focus on educating children how to feed themselves, and eat healthy foods.

Foundation member Karen Pryznyk explained the importance of supporting breakfast programs in schools.

"The kids will not be able to settle down and focus and learn if they haven't been fed, so all schools feed their students to some extent and we want to support that," Pryznyk said.

"All schools are running these programs with their own staff, so we want to support both the students and the teachers … so they can go on and do the thing they were hired for -- which is to teach the students."

The business was a task Bachelor of Commerce students at the university have to complete as part of its Venture Challenge. Five teams of five students were responsible for coming up with a way to make money for a charity of their choice, finding manufacturers to make the products they planned to sell, and creating websites to help generate revenue.

"We found a manufacturer in B.C. that could (make the bags) for $2 per bag which was really good, and our professor helped us find a way we could make a website for $14, when we thought it was going to cost us at least $200," Wood said.

The goal is to make $750, which would mean students would have to sell 125 bags, but they aim to make more money than that.

They have a month left to sell bags and sold 25 in their first week of business.

When their five weeks are up, the students can keep the business going, shut it down or even sell the website domain to the charity so they can continue it themselves.