David (far right) and his wife Manjy Sidoo (middle) and their sons with their famous family friend – Oscar-winning Hollywood star Kevin Spacey.

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When poverty stricken families in Surrey needed emergency food deliveries, well known Indo-Canadian businessman David Sidoo came to their rescue  by donating $10,000 to provide emergency weekend food deliveries to 25 families. It’s part of his family’s $30,000 pledge to this year’s campaign. Since Sidoo came forward, two charities – the Guru Nanak free kitchen and the Relate Church – who had been helping to feed the families, have both pledged $750 a month until the end of June for the program started by Liane Ricou, an official with the Surrey School Board.

SURREY – Poverty-stricken families in the North Surrey area, many of them refugees, have had a hard time getting by and even harder time eating a proper meal.

The Vancouver Sun reported that such is the state of poverty in some Whalley area homes that a family recently had only a single onion to eat between them all weekend.

“That’s all they had,” Liane Ricou, an official with the Surrey School Board, told the Sun. “We know of families that don’t even have that.  They’ll go all weekend without eating anything,” she said.

Ricou recently launched a pilot program to try and feed 25 poverty-stricken families but the only money for the program was $100 a week being donated by parishioners of the Relate Church at 6788 152nd St. and the Guru Nanak free kitchen.

“We just haven’t been able to buy what they need. We want to give them bread, pasta, pasta sauce, tuna for protein, fruit and vegetables, a box of cereal, milk, but it’s not possible,” Ricou told the Sun, asking the daily newspaper if it could help.

The newspaper turned to well known Indo-Canadian businessman David Sidoo — who is also a longtime supporter of the Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-a-School campaign — and he quickly opened his huge checkbook and is donating $10,000 to provide emergency weekend food deliveries to those 25 families. It’s part of his family’s $30,000 pledge to this year’s campaign.

“We can’t leave families hungry like this,” said Sidoo, whose foundation has given more than $122,000 to schools since 2008.

Since Sidoo came forward, the Relate Church and the Guru Nanak free kitchen have both pledged $750 a month until the end of June for the program.

Sidoo also committed $20,000 this week to help feed hungry children at two Vancouver elementary schools.

Meanwhile, The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Board, which supervises Adopt-a-School, announced that this year’s campaign resulted in 70 schools receiving more than $600,000 in grants to combat the effects of poverty among schoolchildren.

How To Donate:

ONLINE: Adopt-a-School is an initiative of The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund, a registered Canadian charity. Receipts are issued for donations. To donate online using your Visa or MasterCard, go to http://www.vansunkidsfund.ca and click on the Donate Now button. That will take you to the Children’s Fund’s online donations site at the Vancouver Foundation, which has partnered with the Children’s Fund to help in administration of donations.

MAIL IN: Complete the form at vansunkidsfund.ca. We accept Visa, MasterCard or cheques or money orders payable to: The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Society Suite 1 -200 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N3. For more info: adoptaschool@vancouversun.com