Province signs onto federal school food program

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2024 (354 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More school fridges will be upgraded and stocked thanks to new funding from Ottawa that will bolster Manitoba’s expanding nutrition programs.

Manitoba has become the second province to officially join the federal government’s national school food program.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is also finance minister, and Premier Wab Kinew announced details at a news conference on Friday.

“A family with two kids will save as much as $800 a year on groceries,” Freeland told reporters who had crowded inside Winnipeg’s Marion School.

Flanked by a handful of elected officials, she noted the national initiative is only made possible with partners, such as Manitoba, “who share our commitment to Canada’s kids.”

The deal includes a $17.2-million commitment in federal funding for breakfast, lunch and snack programs over the next three years.

Local schools are being allotted $3.8 million this year, followed by $6.7 million in both 2025-26 and 2026-27.

Just over 19,000 children are anticipated to be fed annually with the additional dollars.

“We know that when a kid shows up to school hungry, it’s a barrier to learning. We’ve heard this loud and clear from teachers and educators across the province,” Kinew said Friday.

“On the flip side, when you put a carton of milk, a banana, a piece of bannock in the hands of a young person, it can boost the mood, help the engagement with other kids, help the engagement with educators.”

The premier said the best economic plan is “a good education plan,” and the province will reap the benefits of nutrition investments in the decades to come.

Newfoundland and Labrador was the first to announce a bilateral agreement. The payments are part of the Liberals’ $1-billion plan to serve school meals over the next five years.

“Trudeau’s photo op promise will not feed kids, it will feed bureaucracies,” Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri, shadow minister for families, children and social development, said in response to the announcement.

In a statement, Ferreri said the program falsely claims to be universal when it will only ensure about 10 per cent of children in Manitoba are fed, leaving out 9 in 10 families.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

In Manitoba, the extra dollars will support the delivery of a new “universally accessible” nutrition program — a key plank in the NDP’s 2023 election campaign.

The province earmarked $30 million in this year’s budget to make healthy meals more widely available in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings.

Benjamin Preteau said his children have been served eggs, pancakes and fruit on days where his family ran out of time to organize meals in the morning this year.

“I do my best as a parent, but it’s nice to have help from the school,” said Preteau, referencing both the free meals and nutrition-related lessons provided at Marion School, at 619 Des Meurons St.

The Louis Riel School Division, which operates the elementary site and 49 other schools, has received $1.5 million from the province and $336,000 from Ottawa to operate healthy food programs in 2024-25.

Chef Michael Erin said the funding has allowed him to purchase new mixers, jumbo choppers and take-out containers for the René Deleurme Centre’s community kitchen. The facility currently services about half of the division’s schools.

“The bottom line is, if you’re hungry, you can’t learn – so put something in the students’ bellies and then they’re going to learn,” Erin said.

Alan Campbell of the Canadian School Boards Association noted his organization studies best practices and shares them with school leaders across the country.

Campbell called Manitoba’s school nutrition model, including its new partnership with the federal government, “a really good example… of what needs to happen in every province for the good of the kids.”

Asked about the future of the program should there be a change in leadership in Ottawa, Freeland said there’s no way to guarantee it.

“You can’t future-proof something with some kind of fancy political footwork, some kind of fancy legislation,” she said. “The way Canadians get the programs that they like and believe in, to continue to be in place, is to vote for the people who believe in those programs.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca