WOODLANDS COUNTY - The Fort Assiniboine School Parent's Society will have to wait a bit longer to learn if Woodlands County will help them ensure every student in the hamlet's school has a healthy breakfast.
On Dec. 6, a delegation from the society consisting of Megan Petryshen, Meghan Koster, and Jenny Kuelken asked councillors to consider providing bridge funding of $16,982 to reboot the school's breakfast program, which would be open to all students regardless of need.
"Our funding request would provide the kids with more than two ounces of milk, fresh fruit options, homemade — not made from sugar-based, prepackaged mixes baking — and proteins that may not be available at home," she said.
Councillors unanimously voted to add the request to the county's interim budget deliberations on Dec. 20.
Koster explained that the Fort Assiniboine School Parent's Society is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2001 that raises roughly $9,000 annually for school extras such as guest speakers, field trips, and equipment.
However, as much of the funds are raised through the Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) Commission, their uses are restricted and cannot be used for a breakfast program.
As such, she said the society applied for a grant under the Breakfast Club of Canada (BCC) program.
The BCC, founded in 1994 in Quebec, is a charitable organization that provides breakfast for over 500,000 students through 3,000 academic and community programs.
Unfortunately, due to high demand, the organization does not have enough funding for all the requests they receive, and there is a waitlist, which Fort Assiniboine School is now on.
In the meantime, Koster said the society has attempted to raise the necessary funds, contacting local-area businesses, including multiple "corporate giants that supply local vendors", and thus far have raised about $1,000.
In addition to fundraising, in August, the society met with Sysco Canada, a food service distributor that provides food products in large quantities to restaurants and lodging companies, along with healthcare and educational facilities, among others, to see if they could lower their food costs.
Regrettably, Koster said they found that by and large, the large bulk food supplier offered little to no savings, especially when shipping costs are factored in.
"This year has brought several new students and volunteers to the school, and our kitchen is back to pre-pandemic days and is swarming with volunteers," she said. "We just need funding to help us get this program off the ground and help our students succeed," she said.
Whitecourt Central Coun. Alan Deane said he was unclear whether the society was attempting to resurrect an old program or start one from scratch, and if they are successful in getting the BCC grant, it would be enough to fund the program and how long funding would be in place.
Kuelken replied that they've always had a breakfast program, and it's only recently, post-pandemic, that they have had to worry about funding.
"As volunteers, we were never bound by any purchasing limits before the pandemic," she said. "Then the pandemic hit, volunteers weren't allowed in the school, we had minimal breakfasts."
Fort Assiniboine School principal Lorna Hiemstra said part of the change was that the school used to get an annual provincial School Nutrition Program grant of $14,000.
"Now it's down to $4,000," she said.
As for how much they would receive and when through the BCC, Kuelken said they do not know. However, she added that the schools the society has talked to, once accepted, there is no need to reapply.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
