WINNIPEG, MB – Thanks to a generous donation from Jennifer Roblin and The Burns Family Fund through The Winnipeg Foundation, The University of Winnipeg’s Diversity Food Services is providing nutritious after-school snacks to school students of all ages who attend the after-school Let’s Talk Science and Homework Club at the University of Winnipeg’s Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre. The generosity of Jennifer Roblin and the Burns Family Fund donation of $36,000 will ensure that the program will continue well into the future providing stability for the homework club.
Impact the Broader Community
Research indicates that nutrition has an impact on a student’s ability to focus and learn. This meaningful partnership between the University’s Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre, Diversity, and these generous funders, will significantly impact the broader community and help young students develop habits that will continue to inform their food choices well beyond their years at the homework club.
Providing Nutritious & Delicious Snacks
“Many of these students come straight from school to participate in the Let’s Talk Science and Homework Club and arrive at the Centre hungry. Thanks to Jennifer Roblin and The Burns Family Fund, we will be able to provide them with a nutritious and delicious snack before they head into hours of homework and learning,” explained Dina Ducharme, Program Facilitator at the Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre. “Young people find focusing on mental activities easier if they have eaten something nutritious.”
Wii Chiiwaakanak Learning Centre is a community drop-in centre facilitated by UWinnipeg, made possible through private donations. The centre provides Aboriginal youth and their families with access to computers, mentors and Elders’ teaching and sharing circles, as well as fun movie nights. Student volunteers from the University assist neighbourhood children with homework after school. Thanks to generous private donations, UWinnipeg’s Diversity Foods is now providing nutritious snacks to students who attend the after-school homework club. Approximately 2,000 people access the centre monthly.
Prepared from Scratch
Diversity creates food that is alive with flavour and nutrition, prepared from scratch using authentic ingredients that are often locally sourced. Their kitchen philosophy ensures that food is prepared and sourced in a socially responsible manner that recognizes that food is necessary for more than health; food also contributes to the creation of community. Diversity will contribute time as well to teach the participants in the homework club about the contribution food choices make to personal health as well as to social, economic and ecological justice.
