Five provinces have now signed agreements with the federal government for the national school food program.
New Brunswick became the latest on Friday, receiving $11.2 million over three years to expand free breakfast programs.
“We’ve been working hard with the province to get to this point,” Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jenna Sudds told our newsroom.
Federal officials announced last April that they would spend $1 billion over five years on a national school food program.
More than 51,000 students in 135 New Brunswick schools already have access to a healthy breakfast through a partnership between the province and Food Depot Alimentaire.
Officials said the funding will allow the province to expand the program to the remaining 160 schools, which currently receive healthy food services, such as breakfast and snacks, from community groups.
“I’d also point out there’s also a commitment to source food locally. So that means bagels from Fancy Pokket, that means apples from Belliveau Orchards,” said Sudds.
“This is an opportunity to also support the local economy and the farmers and the businesses here in the province.”
While the $11.2 million announced for Friday is only for three years, Sudds said the idea is to offer more funding to the province down the road.
“We certainly need, I think, to learn over these next few years of how we can do even better, frankly, learn from the programs, learn from the schools,” she said.
The funding will also include planning for the creation of a province-wide pay-what-you-can lunch program to be launched in future years.
With five provinces already on board with the national school food program — Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Manitoba included — Sudds said she expects more announcements in the weeks to come.
“I am aspiring to get all of the provinces and territories signed on within the next month or so, so lots of work underway to make that actually happen,” she added.
