The Sea to Sky School District (SD48) will receive over $620,000 from the province for 2023 to 2024 school food programs.
During SD48’s monthly board meeting, Supt. Chris Nicholson said that the province would be funding the district with $625,279 for next year’s school food programs. The money will be provided by the Ministry of Education and Child Care’s Feeding Futures funding, which is meant to expand local food programs.
Nicholson said the new funding would allow the district to continue paying for its existing food programs.
“We'll be able to use this fund to pay for that, allowing us to free up some operational monies for other worthy causes in the district and just continue to support student mental health,” he said.
He also said the province had told the district that this will be “ongoing” and “permanent” funding for SD48 and other provincial school districts.
“The overarching intent of the funding is to reach that 20% of students who face food insecurity across the province,” he said. “That's a very sobering statistic.”
Board chair and trustee, Rebecca Barley, recalled how at the start of the pandemic some school staff delivered food from the program to homes to ensure students had enough food at the time, which called attention to food insecurity in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
“We were bringing food because some of the kids, they ate [at school], and that's it,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought that.”
Nicholson said that the next steps would include consulting with local partners such as food banks and First Nations communities on best practices to utilize the funding, and meetings with the province. Overall, Nicholson said he was pleased with the Ministry for its commitment.
For more information about the Feeding Futures funding, go to the province’s news release.
