SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When Steve Payne realized some students in Yellowknife were coming to school on Mondays very hungry he realized something had to be done.

Ted Canning, left, Angela Canning, Steve Payne, Jennifer Lockhart and Chad Malouin gather around food packages they put together to give to students in need. Payne and Angela Canning started the program to help feed underprivileged kids over the weekend.

"These young kids are being fed at school through breakfast and lunch programs. But when they go home on the weekends, they come back on Monday they are just ravished, hungry, they haven't had a lot to eat over the previous two days," he said.

Payne said he then partnered with Angela Canning who had been putting together survival kits for the city's homeless, to do something for hungry youngsters in the city. He said they are handing out 30 food kits to 15 kids at two unnamed Yellowknife schools.

"The teachers at the schools are deciding who gets the care packages," he said. "They know which kids need it." He said they don't want to identify the schools or the students who are getting the care packages to protect the students' identities and privacy.

The packages are handed out to the students late on Friday afternoons. Payne said it is done discreetly so their fellow classmates aren't aware of it.

"These packages can easily slipped into a backpack without any other students knowing about it," Payne said.

The food packages are made up of cereal, oatmeal, milk, granola bars, juice boxes, noodles, Kraft Dinner, rice cakes, popcorn and other items. Each food package is worth about $20.

Payne, his wife Jennifer Lockhart, Angelea Canning, her partner Ted Canning and Chad Malouin from Yellowknife Chrysler got together in Payne's garage last Wednesday night to help put the latest food packages together.

Canning said that doing this for kids makes her feel good. "I can sleep at night. I don't have much but I'm doing what I can," she said. "But it makes me sad that these kids are coming to school hungry. It makes me sad that no one is meeting their needs." She said she realizes there are bigger issues at play here that being that some parents are not feeding her kids. She said she alone can't immediately do anything about that but she can put these food packages together to at least help in the short-term.

Payne said many people don't realize that schools are a safe haven for many kids. He said plenty of kids come to school because it is a safe zone.

"They come to eat, to get a shower, to get away from home. They want to feel safe. It goes without say that it's difficult to learn on an empty stomach," he said. You can't learn when you are worried about being hungry."

Chad Malouin from Yellowknife Chrysler said the effort at his business started small but is now growing both where he works and at other businesses in the city. "The goal is to put enough of the packages together to soon feed as many as 200 kids over the weekends. He said they are looking for more sponsors to help try to expand the program even further.

Payne said at this point his goal is to keep the food packages coming at least through the end of this school year.

SSI Micro, Nahanni Construction, Northern Food Services and Ragged Ass Barbers are the corporate sponsors involved so far in the program.