School nutrition programs ‘extremely busy’

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This article was published 17/10/2024 (534 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As kids approach the student services office at Vincent Massey High School, educational assistant Cory Kukurudz has a list of regularly asked questions ready to go.

“Are you also grabbing something for your sister?” Kukurudz asks a boy. “Do you want both of your usual granola bars?” he asks a girl. “I’m out of the muffins you like, would you like a bagel with cream cheese instead?” he asks another boy.

Every morning the school runs classes, Kukurudz sets up a food cart loaded with vegetables, fruits, bagels, muffins, granola bars and more provided through the Food for Thought Program.

For World Food Day on Wednesday, the Brandon School Division and Food for Thought invited the Sun to Vincent Massey and Betty Gibson School to see how their nutrition programs run.

This school year is the first under the Manitoba government’s universal school nutrition program, through which the BSD received just over $1 million. Most of that money, 65 per cent, has been allocated toward buying food, while 35 per cent is being used for staffing and equipment.

On Wednesday, BSD assistant superintendent Jon Zilkey said the division sees the new funding and existing programs as a “great co-existence.”

“Food for Thought’s been doing it for years and doing it so well,” Zilkey said. “Now we look at the provincial funding as kind of helping to even meet more of those needs.”

The division’s pot of money was divided up between local schools by a committee of principals and vice-principals who developed a formula that took accounted for factors like socioeconomic needs.

“It’s going to allow us to expand the program areas where we didn’t have lunch programs,” he said. “We’re going to be able to put some lunch programs in because of the extra staffing funding. We are also allow through the nutrition grant to get some equipment that we’ve never had before to help with cooking.”

Food for Thought has been offering breakfasts and snacks in most of the division’s schools since 1997. While the division’s food offerings through the provincial funding only kicked off this month due to the need to get health permits, Zilkey said, Food for Thought has been running since the beginning of the school year.

Program co-ordinator Angie Strachan told the Sun that this September was the busiest startup yet for Food for Thought.

“We had over 19,000 students (receive meals). That’s a record number in the history of our 27 years,” Strachan said. “It has been extremely busy.”

Last school year, Food for Thought served 190,291 meals, another record high. Strachan said the increase is likely due to rising food costs and hardships families are facing.

“We have a lot of new families coming into Manitoba, especially into Brandon,” she said. “We are there just to provide food to those students. There is a definite need, and we’re seeing that increase every single year.”

Food for Thought’s funding comes from donations from individuals, businesses, government grants and fundraisers. The addition of the provincial funding doesn’t mean, however, that Food for Thought has a reduced need for donations because the number of students using the program keeps increasing.

Most schools, like Vincent Massey, get a snack program with grab-and-go options for kids from Food for Thought. Four schools have dedicated breakfast programs: Betty Gibson, George Fitton School, Meadows School and King George School.

Kids getting breakfasts need to sign up in advance so that the staff in charge of each school’s food program can make sure their dietary needs and allergies are accounted for while any student can pick up the grab and go options.

No student wanting to eat is turned away, which Zilkey said helped remove some of the potential stigma attached to accepting food. The few schools in the BSD that are not visited by Food for Thought “receive funding from other organizations or provincial funding.”

So far this year, Vincent Massey has seen 300 or more students a day picking up snacks.

Grade 9 student Rhema Orebiyi said sometimes she doesn’t have time to grab breakfast before catching her bus to school and knowing food is waiting for her is a weight off her mind.

“I always get two granola bars and a cheese string,” Orebiyi said.

Kukurudz said after five years working with the food program, it’s the best part of his day because he gets to interact with his students.

“It’s a different aspect of my job that you really get to connect with the kids and have good conversations,” he said. “It’s not like the classroom, you know? You get to work with them, but you don’t get to really connect and here, they’ll come and chat and you get to know them in another order.”

With the provincial funding, he said they’ve been able to expand the healthy options they offer to students and they’ve been able to get food in higher quantities.

At Betty Gibson, Building Student Success with Indigenous Parents worker Vanessa Pascal makes breakfast five days a week in a small kitchen set up on one side of a Grade 3/4 class.

On offer on Wednesday morning were pizza buns. After the morning bell rang, it was a bit of a tight squeeze as the breakfast kids grabbed what was left of their meals and headed out of the room while the regular occupants of the classroom shuffled in.

Three of five days a week, Pascal said she tries to do a hot meal. She puts together a shopping list and Food for Thought picks up the ingredients for her.

“A well-nurtured child is more focused, attentive and ready to learn, setting the foundation for a productive school day,” she said.

“Providing breakfast ensures that all students, regardless of their economic background, have access to a nutritional start to their day. Studies have shown that children who eat breakfast regularly perform better in school, have improved concentration and exhibit better behaviour.”

Last year, an average of 189 students came for food each morning. This year, it’s closer to 120 a day, but Pascal said the number tends to trend upwards as time progresses.

Because of the number of students needing food and the small space they have to serve food in, she said an initial group gets their meal at the kitchen from 8:30 to 9 a.m., the kids who get bused in get fed around 9 a.m., and then she carries the rest of the food from classroom to classroom until around 10 a.m.

To get everything prepared on time, Pascal said she arrives around 7:30 a.m. If it’s a special meal, she might come in 15 minutes earlier.

“I do most of it by myself,” she said. “It’s hard because it’s so early in the morning it’s harder to get volunteers.”

The Food for Thought snack program is run separately, but she said that thanks to the provincial funding, another co-ordinator has been hired to run that program and it has been expanded from two days a week to five.

Sometimes, students give her a hand. That includes Grade 8 student Danika Kelly.

“Some mornings, we don’t have time to eat, especially when I’m getting up really late even though my sisters are trying to wake me up,” Kelly said. “The teachers were just like ‘does anyone want to try this free breakfast program?’ and I was like ‘sure, I’ll try it.’ I’ve been coming for three years.”

She said not only does it help her out, but she thinks it helps her mom focus on getting other food made at home.

Her favourite creation of Pascal’s is a mock banana split made with yogurt rather than ice cream.

“Sometimes I don’t eat lunch and then I find in the afternoon it’s a lot harder for me to concentrate,” Kelly said. “There’s been a few times where I’ve forgotten to go eat breakfast and I found it was a lot harder to focus. I think the healthy food she gives us actually really helps.”

Beyond getting a meal, Kelly said the morning meals also give her the chance to socialize with friends, especially those who are no longer in the same class as her.

Overall, Strachan said they’ve had school staff report better attendance and better prepared students when food is offered.

“It’s early, so we’re going to see how the first year (goes),” Zilkey said. “Someone said we’re kind of building a ship as we’re sailing it. We’re just going to be using this as a learning experience. But I think in May, June, we’ll probably sit down with Angie and go ‘hey, what worked for Food for Thought, what worked for us?’”

Anyone interested in donating to or volunteering for Food for Thought should visit them online at brandonsfoodforthought.com.

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