Inner City Youth Alive struggles after recent vandalism incidents

Executive Director and Founder of Inner City Youth Alive (ICYA), Kent Dueck, says they’re doing everything they can to keep their Meals for Kids program operating. However, after two incidents of vandalism happening within the past three weeks, the impact on the organization has been severe.

Recently, a copper pipe was damaged causing over $20,000 dollars in repairs and the ICYA is now seeking help to fundraise this money back, so they can continue to make a difference in the community.

“We can’t keep getting hit like this and continue. Our value is the last thing to suffer, it’s the kids, we do not want this to impact the kids,” said Dueck.

The copper pipe that was damaged on the outside of the building is what kept the freezer in the building cold, so this act of vandalism resulted in over 3000 dollars worth of food going bad — heavily impacting the thousands of meals it serves to children per month.

“The work in front of us is already challenging enough you know the burdens that our kids are already carrying, that’s already really big. And then you have this sideways energy that you have to convert against something that just so unnecessary,” said Dueck.

The Meals for Kids program is working to restore the food supply that was lost so they can continue to serve youth in need, and Dueck says he’s hopeful the community will help cover these cost so they can avoid interruption to this program.

“You can see we lost two-thirds of our food again, so these shelves have to be full if were going to be able to feed kids, and you can see the whole section of meats is gone,” added Dueck.

“It means a lot to kids in our community and it’s more than a meal because we don’t do it factory style, you know family meal setting everyone sits around we talk, we laugh, and we support people,” added Dueck.

To help the Meals for Kids program stay in operation, you can make donations on the Inner City Youth Alive website at www.icya.ca.