Raise a mug to well-fed kids

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This article was published 13/03/2024 (932 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Soup season isn’t over yet.

Dozens of restaurants from Flin Flon to Winkler to Winnipeg are serving up special bowls of broth this week for the 12th annual Stone Soup fundraiser hosted by the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba.

Through to Sunday, $1 from each signature soup purchased at a participating business will be donated to the council, which provides grants for meal and snack programs at schools across the province.

There was a noticeable buzz in the air at Rudy’s Eat & Drink on Tuesday afternoon during the first public Stone Soup event since 2019. Armed with ladles and hot plates, staff from nine local eateries were stationed around the downtown restaurant doling out cups of soup to a bustling crowd.

Prior to the pandemic, the fundraiser was a one-day competition between local chefs vying for the title of top soup in the atrium of Manitoba Hydro Place. Organizers have since expanded it into a weeklong food event.

“It’s so nice to be back here with all of you,” former council executive director Viola Prowse said during her remarks.

The Child Nutrition Council recently received a boost in funding from the province, which has committed to covering the costs of a universal nutrition program for Manitoba schools beginning this fall.

With its provincial grant funding topped up to $3.87 million annually, the charitable organization has been able to add another dietitian to its staff and provide more schools with more money for food.

The organization now supports nearly 400 school meal programs, which are accessed daily by more than 50,000 students from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Still, Stone Soup remains an important campaign.

“Last year, we raised around $25,000 and all those funds go directly to school grants,” Clara Birnie, the council’s community dietitian and program grants manager, says of the annual fundraiser. “But it’s really a way to bring the community together, get people talking about school food and raise awareness of the issue.”

Erin Harris, a teacher-librarian at École Salisbury Morse Place School, knows the impact of insufficient nutrition first hand. Twenty-five years ago, she started an ad hoc breakfast program in her classroom, serving cereal to a small group of hungry students. Today, the elementary school provides breakfast five days a week to more than 100 students with funding from the Child Nutrition Council.

“It’s difficult for kids to focus, to do any sort of learning when they’re hungry,” Harris says, adding that demand has ramped up at her school over the last two years, owing to the pandemic, rising food costs and an influx of newcomer families.

“That has (created) a perfect storm of kids needing support and families needing support, and we’re happy that we can provide it for them.”

Visit childnutritioncouncil.com/soups for a full list of participants and to cast votes for the top soup. An online raffle is also running until Friday, with tickets ranging from $5 to $50.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @evawasney