Manitoba NDP says nutrition program will help students most in need; PCs accuse government of 'false promise'
CBC
The Manitoba government is rolling out a nutrition program it says will expand offerings across all of the province's schools, but critics say it falls short of being "universal."
The NDP government is focusing its new nutrition program on the students who may otherwise go hungry, perhaps because they missed breakfast or didn't bring a lunch, Premier Wab Kinew said during a conference at a Winnipeg elementary school Thursday.
"We're talking about tens of thousands of kids here, but it's going to vary," said Kinew, as students sat cross-legged on the Donwood School library floor.
The program is being touted as "universally accessible," and no questions will be asked if a student shows up to access it, Kinew said.
"[If] the packed lunch gets left on the counter one day, and the kid who otherwise is, you know, not participating in this program needs to participate in it along the way — that's fine, too."
WATCH | NDP announces nutrition program:
The province is putting up $30 million annually to supplement the existing patchwork of healthy meal programs across the province, and create ones in schools that weren't already offering them, ensuring there's some kind of nutrition program in every school.
It'll be a mixture of breakfast, lunch and snack programs, or some combination of those.
Education Minister Nello Altomare said the most common program across the 690 public schools will be a free breakfast.
In some schools, the province's money will help to renovate kitchens and hire more staff.
Kinew said the provincial government has a responsibility to ensure students are fed.
He said in Dauphin, for example, volunteers had been preparing hundreds of meals each week.
"We're talking about the future of our province and we're leaving it to charity and to volunteers. What we're saying is that, 'no, that's the role of government,'" the premier said.
"This is why we come together as a society, to have a government, is to do things like build roads and hospitals and have an education system that makes sure that young people are prepared for the next generation."