The generosity of the Zinterer Family is being recognized by Grande Prairie & District Catholic Schools and its education foundation. Over the past eight years, the family and its company Trend Home Improvements have donated $73,500 to the Grande Prairie Schools Snack Program.
The idea came to Karla Zinterer and her husband when they were taking a marriage course through the Catholic church. She says they heard that there were children in local schools who were coming to class hungry and couldn’t focus.
“We were then told about the GP School Snacks program and about how for some of the students this program was the only meal the child would get in a day. It was at this point that Andy and I decided this program would be our program of choice for donations and when we brought this information forward to the family they all agreed and wanted to support it as well.”
The snack program has been around since 2003, giving children in need a healthy morning breakfast, a fresh fruit midmorning snack, and a nutritious emergency bag lunch. It is run at three schools – St. Clement, St. Patrick, and St. Joseph High School – which were chosen based on the population of mid to low-income status families, Aboriginal families and the high level of single-parent homes.
“Our family very strongly believes that education is the starting point for our youth to be successful and if
they are hungry they can’t learn and that is a hurdle all children should not have to face,” adds Zinterer. “We
believe that supporting any charity that provides food for people is important but children are not responsible for the situations they are in so we focus our support towards children.”