Students from Campus Brome-Missisquoi’s (CBM) Adult Education centre are raising funds to update the centre’s kitchen area in order to offer its breakfast  program once again.  With the increase in food prices, the need for more funds is greater than ever.

Over the last few years, the centre has had its own breakfast club that provides low cost breakfast for students and staff. For those students that participate in the breakfast club, it also provides them with the opportunity to learn important life skills related to food security as they enter adulthood. However, the centre was forced to put the breakfast club on hold because it needed to bring the kitchen up to code. 

As a result, students have been looking for sources of funding so that they can purchase new kitchen appliances and renovate the space to continue helping their peers by ensuring that they don’t show up to school on an empty stomach. According to Maude Danis Coulombe, assistant director of the Campus Brome-Missisquoi’s Adult Education centre, there is a major need for a breakfast program due to food price inflation. 

“We saw a huge difference with all of the increases in prices of food. We have some other initiatives as well where we always keep granola bars in our student services room. It’s something that worries us a lot,” noted  Danis Coulombe. “To build it with our students, to make sure that the day they decide to move on with their lives that they still have the good reflex on how to cook on budget and have access to good food, that, for us, is really important.”

Danis Coulombe explained that while breakfast programs are usually offered at the primary and secondary level it is not always the case for the adult education centres, which is why CBM’s Adult Education centre started its breakfast club. The centre tried alternative options at the beginning of the year so that the breakfast club could keep their program going, but things didn’t pan out. “It was a very tough decision that we had to make. (…) We tried a couple of options at the beginning of the year, but unfortunately nothing worked so we closed it. We actually have the chance to have amazing students who brought it up to us and said ‘there is no way we can close our breakfast club.’ Everything started to be clear to us, we had to do something for them and with them to re-open it,” said Danis Coulombe. 

Marina Kyle and Owen Bryant, two of the four students that form the breakfast club committee, acknowledged that they’ve both seen the positive impact that the breakfast program has on the students they serve. They say that being a part of the breakfast club has also benefitted them in more ways than one. “As we’re kinda still young, and we’re just hitting that adulthood, I think it’s great because we are learning how to budget, we are learning inventory, we’re learning so many unique things that we need to include in our adulthood,” said Kyle. 

“It’s like a dollar and some students don’t normally eat breakfast in the morning. I take the bus and my bus is about 40 minutes or so, I don’t have time to eat breakfast in the morning. It really benefits the students,” added Bryant. 

Kyle mentioned that while there are other alternatives available to students, like the low-priced croissants that are offered by CBM’s butcher shop, it doesn’t always fill the student’s stomachs. The breakfast club makes more food options accessible to the students that need it. “Sometimes they don’t always want a croissant. Sometimes they might want something a little bit more filling, like a grilled cheese. Croissants are a very light, light thing to have in the morning. So I think if you’re a little bit more hungry, we offer that,” said Kyle. 

The fundraising goal for the centre’s kitchen project is $15,000 and it has raised close to $11,000 so far. The centre received a grant from the Townshippers’ Foundation and the Yamaska Literacy Council has pledged financial support towards the project. Students are also selling chocolate and they have a spaghetti dinner fundraiser scheduled for tomorrow. The breakfast club wants to re-open in September of 2023.

“Because we are going to be student run it takes a lot of leadership for us as students as well. I think it’s such a great opportunity for us and that Maude has given us. I honestly think we can’t be more grateful for the help and support that we have gotten from others, teachers and staff included,” said Kyle. 

“It’s probably better than being paid seeing the students rise up and say ‘this is what we need, this is what we want.’ This is the reason why we are here, we want to see them grow into the best version of themselves and that’s what I see here today,” emphasized Danis Coulombe. 

The spaghetti dinner fundraiser is taking place on May 9 at 180 Adélard-Godbout Cowansville, QC, J2K 3X9 starting at 11:40 a.m. 

Tickets are still available and they can be purchased at the door the day of or reserved in advance by calling CBM. Those that can’t attend the fundraiser can make a general donation to support the breakfast club.

Listen to the full interview below: