To help students in need access healthy food while learning at home, Rocky View Schools (RVS) is redirecting $90,000 of its School Nutrition Program (SNP) funding to food banks in Airdrie, Cochrane and Chestermere.
RVS will also dole out an additional $37,500 of SNP funding to five of its rural schools to ensure equitable access for vulnerable families in the district.
"In the funding we get from government every year, there are some dollars allocated towards SNP," said RVS Board Chair Fiona Gilbert. "These are things like the breakfast programs, snack programs and things like that which take place in our schools."
According to Gilbert, 24 schools in RVS provide breakfast and snack programs to students. The programs are available to any student who wishes to use them.
With the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilbert said these programs are obviously not operating at the moment and RVS was told by the Alberta government it could distribute the remaining funds as the district saw fit.
- INTERACTIVE MAP: See the latest COVID-19 statistics across Canada by province/territory on our interactive map.
RVS will donate $10,000 per month each to the Airdrie Food Bank, Chestermere Regional Food Bank and Cochrane Activettes Food Bank in April, May and June.
To help out the district’s rural students who live outside those larger municipalities, Gilbert said RVS is also providing its schools in Crossfield, Beiseker, Kathyrn and Indus with $2,500 a month each in SNP funding for the remainder of the school year. The funding will go to Crossfield Elementary School, W.G. Murdoch School, Beiseker Community School, Kathyrn School and Indus School to be distributed as needed.
"Particularly in the rural areas, I think the schools are the best ones to know what works for their community and their schools," Gilbert said. "I am glad we are able to have this money available. I know some of the smaller communities don’t have food banks, and this is a good way to get some of those dollars to them and address the needs in those smaller communities."
According to Gilbert, RVS will reassess its SNP funding levels in June with an eye on ensuring all its 2019-20 funding is expended before the end of the school year.
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
