PRINCE ALBERT — The Prince Albert Catholic School Division and the Catholic Education Foundation have been successful in their joint submission to expand school food infrastructure.
The two organizations submitted their proposal to the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA). The SSBA has received $1 million in federal funding to address the issue.
Catholic School Division Director of Education Lorel Trumier updated the board on the application at their regular meeting on Monday. The division will receive $40,731 in grant funding.
“Obviously, we wish it was $1 million all given to us; however, we will take any opportunity to support our current initiatives and programs,” Trumier said. “We know that the school food infrastructure can benefit from having some dollars.”
The project called “Expanding school food infrastructure in Saskatchewan: Ensuring equitable reach” will distribute up to $1 million to eligible organizations across the province who are serving school food and nutrition programs for children and youth in need. The money will come from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF).
The funding will pay for new food services equipment to be installed at Ecole St. Mary High School. The equipment will not only support food services for Ecole St. Mary, but it will also benefit students at St. Michael School.
“This will go strictly to infrastructure and most of it will be seen at St. Mary High School because we are have two programs running out of that cafeteria kitchen. They support not only all of the students at St. Mary, over 1,000 students, but all of the students at St Michael as well,” Trumier said. “That's another almost 200 students there, so very, very well worth it.”
SSBA President Shawn Davidson said in an interview with the Herald that the funding will be used to help third-party agreements that school divisions in the province have. That would include things like breakfast programs such as Feeding Our Futures in Prince Albert.
Key project outcomes include increasing the capacity of organizations to provide or upgrade food preparation spaces, storage, equipment, and transportation/delivery. Davidson said the goal is to improve food environments within schools and strengthen community food security.
Eligible recipients are community-based, not-for-profit organizations engaged with school food programs. Trumier was pleased to have the support of the Catholic Education Foundation.
"We're grateful for the opportunity to work with our non-profit Catholic Education Foundation. A special note of thanks to Father Harry (Shalahub) and the board of the Foundation, they do great work for our school division and this was another opportunity that they really endeavoured to do that,” Trumier said.
