Last week, in a modest kitchen at Royal Bay Secondary School in Colwood, I watched as a group of teenagers transformed basic ingredients into something far more powerful than just a meal. What began as a classroom business project has evolved into a potential lifeline for students facing a challenge many Canadians might not associate with our schools: hunger.
“We noticed some of our classmates would skip lunch regularly,” explained Mia Henriksen, a grade 11 student and one of the project’s organizers. “When we started asking questions, we realized it wasn’t always by choice.”
The Food Security Initiative started by these business students tackles a problem that’s been growing quietly in Vancouver Island schools. Their approach is remarkably straightforward – preparing and selling affordable meal kits while channeling profits into emergency food assistance for fellow students.
Vancouver Island communities have seen food bank usage increase by nearly 23% over the past year, according to the Victoria Food Bank Network’s quarterly report. The ripple effects of this broader food insecurity crisis are now washing into school hallways across the region.
The students work under the guidance of teacher Michael Brooks-Hill, who helped them navigate the business aspects while encouraging their community-focused vision. “What makes this project special is that it’s entirely student-driven,” Brooks-Hill told me as we watched the team prepare sample meal kits. “They identified a need in their school community and built a sustainable solution.”
The meal kits themselves are clever – affordable packages containing pre-measured ingredients and recipe cards for nutritious meals that can feed a family of four for under $15. The students source ingredients through partnerships with local farms and grocery stores, keeping costs low while supporting local businesses.
Royal Bay Principal Windy Beadall sees the initiative as addressing a critical but often invisible need. “Food insecurity among students isn’t always obvious. Many families are just one unexpected expense away from having to make difficult choices about groceries,” Beadall explained during my visit to the school.
Research from Statistics Canada indicates that approximately 15% of British Columbia households experienced some form of food insecurity in 2022, with rates higher among families with school-aged children. The pandemic and subsequent inflation have only intensified these pressures.
The students’ business model has two revenue streams: selling meal kits to the broader community and operating a small café at school events. Profits go directly to providing emergency food assistance through discreetly distributed grocery store gift cards and the stocking of a “free pantry” in the school’s counseling area.
“It’s designed to be sustainable,” explained Jason Tran, another student organizer. “We’re not just asking for donations – we’re building something that can last beyond our graduation.”
The initiative has garnered support from local businesses. Thrifty Foods has committed to providing ingredients at cost, while Coastal Community Credit Union recently approved a $2,500 start-up grant to help scale operations.
Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi, who attended a recent demonstration of the program, praised the students’ entrepreneurial approach to a complex social problem. “These young people aren’t just identifying issues – they’re creating solutions that build community resilience,” Kobayashi said.
Food security experts note that such school-based approaches are valuable for addressing the unique barriers that prevent young people from accessing traditional food banks. “There’s often stigma that prevents students from seeking help,” explained Samantha Davidson, coordinator with the Island Food Security Coalition. “Peer-led programs like this one remove some of those barriers.”
The students have conducted anonymous surveys that suggest approximately 12% of Royal Bay’s 1,200 students regularly experience food insecurity. That translates to roughly 140 young people who might not know where their next proper meal is coming from.
What struck me most during my visit was the matter-of-fact compassion these teenagers bring to their work. There’s no savior complex here – just practical problem-solving and a clear-eyed understanding that helping classmates access food is simply the right thing to do.
“Everyone deserves to eat lunch,” said Henriksen with a shrug that belied the importance of her statement. “It’s pretty basic.”
The team hopes to expand their model to other schools in the Sooke School District next year. They’ve documented their process and created a starter guide for other student groups interested in launching similar initiatives.
As inflation continues to squeeze household budgets across Vancouver Island, community-based approaches like this student initiative represent an important piece of the food security puzzle. They demonstrate how local solutions, tailored to specific community needs, can sometimes be more effective than one-size-fits-all approaches.
For the teenagers involved, the project has become more than just a classroom assignment. They’re gaining practical business experience while developing a deeper understanding of social issues affecting their peers.
As I left Royal Bay that afternoon, students were packaging meal kits for their first major sales drive. The scene – teenagers laughing while measuring pasta and sealing bags of locally-sourced vegetables – seemed ordinary enough. But in that kitchen, I witnessed something extraordinary: young people refusing to accept hunger as an inevitable part of school life, and instead building practical solutions one meal kit at a time.
It’s a reminder that sometimes the most effective approaches to complex social problems begin not with grand policies, but with small groups of concerned citizens – even teenage ones – who simply decide to do something about the challenges they see around them.
