Topics covered in this post:
Happy Holidays
“JICS Fall Edition Newsletter” is Ready!
Grandpals “Festivals of Lights” Holiday Sing-Along
Message from PA President
Blocking our neighbour’s driveway
Food Drive Success
Note from Trash Team
Upcoming December Events
Upcoming January Events
1. Happy Holidays
We wish everyone a holiday that is just the right balance of festive gatherings and quiet relaxation. The term ends tomorrow at noon. Daycare open to registered users until 6:00pm. Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy New Year.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday, January 6, 2020!
2. “JICS Fall Edition Newsletter” is Ready!
At JICS, we believe that when it comes to our partnership with parents, the “more information, the better”! Hence, we provide weekly or biweekly teacher class-specific summary emails, Thursday’s Parent Information Posts, the individual report cards, parent-teacher interviews/meetings, etc. The JICS Newsletter is an opportunity to “peak into” the rest of the school and learn about experiences that you may not know about. We design it to be shared between parents and children and we hope you will take the time this holiday to flip through the e-pages! Many thanks to Krista for her work in publishing it!
Please check your email for the link to the Newsletter!
3. Grandpals “Festivals of Light” Holiday Sing-Along on December 20
See you tomorrow! Thank you, the Parents’ Association for organizing this event!.
4. Message from PA President
Dear JICS Families
A big THANK YOU to everyone who paid their PA fees and / or donated – your contributions go towards so many things our children and families have already started to enjoy! Click here to see what we purchased with the teacher classroom grants.
We also helped coordinate gifts for our specialty teachers for the holidays. Thanks to Francois and the class reps for putting this all together.
THANK YOU AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Deepta
5. Blocking our Neighbour’s Driveway
Please be mindful to NEVER block the driveway of our neighbours and to share the “parking and driving information” in the JICS Parent Handbook with anyone dropping off or picking up your child. We received multiple complaints this week and we need your help to be respectful and considerate neighbours.
6. Food Drive Success - A Message from the Social and Climate Justice Club
Thank you so much to the JICS community for your generous donations to our Holiday Food Drive! We collected piles of food and drugstore items as well as raising over $500 in cash donations. The Social and Climate Justice Club went shopping at our local Metro grocery store and thoughtfully purchased more items to donate. Chriss also asked the manager at Metro if he would like to contribute and he gave us a $25 gift card. We used the gift card to buy lots of reusable bags to carry the groceries and donated them to the food bank too.
The volunteers at the Avenue Road Food Bank were so happy to receive the huge pile of items that we delivered yesterday. The leaders Tove and Bob spoke to us first about who uses the Food Bank and why. Then they put us to work sorting the deliveries and setting up the tables. We worked alongside a team of other volunteers who were also helping that day.
Here are some of the things we learned during our visit to the Food Bank:
We learned a little bit about how much food goes so quickly – Tove said that when they open at 5pm, all the food would be gone by 6:15pm.
They get about anywhere from 100-200 clients visiting the food bank each week, more come in the Winter months.
We learned a lot about how food banks work: everybody gets fed sandwiches, drinks, and treats first, and then they go shopping. Clients take a bag, move around the store choosing items, and get all the things they need, but they don’t have to pay. They can choose to come back as many weeks as they need to.
People who visit the food bank often come because their rent costs too much and they don’t have enough left over to purchase food. They might not have a stable income, or they are international students, or new refugee families. Lots of different reasons. People who are experiencing homelessness typically choose to go to places where they can get a hot meal that has already been prepared, as they don’t have their own kitchens.
It must take a lot of volunteers and work to get that food bank running every week. They have like 3 hours to set it up.
The food donations are helpful, but not enough. They also get regular donations from the Daily Bread Food Bank, Cobbs, and other companies, but they are not able to donate during the holidays, leaving the food bank with a shortage of fresh produce.
It’s good to donate in winter, as a lot of suppliers can’t give them free things then. Companies that give them fresh vegetables and bread can’t deliver in winter, and those things are sold out the fastest.
Here is what we thought about the experience:
It was so fun.
It was amazing!
I found it sad, because so many people are experiencing poverty.
But it’s also good because it shows that a lot of people know how to access food banks and it’s helping them.
I saw how busy they were. I don’t know how they would have finished setting up without us, we did so much. But we also brought in a lot more food to be sorted!
They do it every week, so they must put it in a lot work to run the food bank.
There might be people in our school that need to use food banks from time to time too, so we aren’t just helping other people, we are helping people here in this community too.
It’s nice to see that once the clients are not in need of the food bank anymore, they usually decide to come back and help others by volunteering. This really shows how much people appreciate the food banks and are wanting to give back.
It felt so good to help people. Even just seeing how much everyone donated really meant a lot. At this school some of us are privileged and don’t get to experience what it’s like to not have enough. It felt so good to help out.
We would also really like to thank the parent volunteers. Whether it was driving the donations to the food bank, or volunteering some of your own food or the generous cash donations we received during and after book night for us to bring there, we would really like to thank you.
Have a happy holiday everyone, and don’t forget to keep donating to your local food bank!!
The JICS Social and Climate Justice Club
See photos from the morning below!
7. Note from Trash Team
Dear Parents
If your celebrations this holiday season involve a live Christmas tree, we ask that you consider delivering it to the school yard when it is time to discard it. Simply drop it over our fence anytime during the holidays. We look forward to “recycling” the trees during our creative outdoor play time!
Happy Holidays,
The Trash Team
9. Upcoming December Events:
Fri 20 – Grandpals “Festivals of Light” Holiday Sing-Along (8:30-10:30am) Please RSVP
Fri 20 – School closes at noon for Winter Holiday. Daycare open.
10. Upcoming January Events:
Mon 6 – School opens for Winter Term (Daycare opens at 8:00am)
Wed 8 to Fri 10 – Gr 3 & 4 Trip to Camp Tawingo
Mon 13 – School-wide lice check (Thank you, PA)
Mon 13 – Variety Village in JK-Gr 6 Phys Ed
Mon 20 – Parent Education Evening: Research Night 7:00-9:00pm. Room 363
Wed 22 – Due date for reenrolment and deposit (2020-2021)
Thur 23 – Information Open House for Nursery Applicants (2020-2021)
Mon 27 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Social and Climate Justice Club food shopping at metro with money donations from the school community & delivering all food donations to the Avenue Road Food Bank
