Come to the Table to Support Service and Compassion

Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools is committed to creating school environments where all students are supported to learn and reach their full potential. However, for many students, poverty and food insecurity have an immediate impact on their ability to learn and stay in school.

The Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools’ Nutrition Program touches the lives of over l,200 students who access the program daily. This essential program is unfunded by provincial grants and is a significant cost to the school division.

There is an ongoing need to continue to fund the Nutrition Program in our schools.

Through the Nutrition Program in our schools, we are reaching out and making a difference in the lives of our students so they can go out and transform the world.


If you drop by the Friendship Inn on any given Saturday or Sunday during the school year you will likely see 5-10 high school students volunteering in the kitchen and dining room. Most of these youth volunteers are at the Inn to volunteer 5 or 10 hours of their time to complete the volunteering requirement for their Christian Ethics class at a local Catholic High School.

For this class the students are responsible for arranging their own volunteer opportunity at various organizations around the city. We are so glad that so many students choose to volunteer at the Friendship Inn.

During the 2014/2015 school year we had 442 different students complete service hours at the Friendship Inn. If the Inn had paid these students for 5 hours of their time, that would represent $30,000 of payroll cost to the Friendship Inn. The volunteer time of Christian Ethics class students represent a huge saving on the cost of running the Friendship Inn.

We love partnering with students, particularly because volunteering at the Inn once for a class assignment can lead to long-term connections with the Inn. We have seen how student volunteers turn into those students or their family volunteering on a regular basis. We also know that volunteering educates the students about the food and financial needs of the Friendship Inn. We are so grateful for the support we receive from student volunteers and their families in response to a fun day of volunteering.

Sandra Stack, Executive Director Friendship Inn