Winnipeg’s largest school division launches universal nutrition program to support students

It was an exciting day at Hugh John MacDonald School, as the Winnipeg School Division launched a universal nutrition program that’s designed to help support students and their academic success.

“It’s a very great opportunity for us because a lot of families don’t have enough food, and hungry kids like me exist,” said one student CityNews spoke to.

Another saying, “Having food actually helps academically because for me personally when I don’t eat or have good food I tend to not focus a lot on school but since this program opened up I know a lot of students are going to start doing much better in school now.”

Over the past year the Winnipeg School Division has built a strong foundation for the nutrition program; developing fully equipped kitchens in six schools and bringing on nutrition coordinators and chefs to make healthy and nutritious meals for the students.

“We know that children need proper nutrition to learn and to feel joy and to feel love and we’ve seen that through attendance, we’ve seen that through children staying at school over lunch and being able to have stamina for the rest of the afternoon and the day, and so the feedback from the kids and families has just been overwhelming,” said Matt Henderson, the superintendent of schools for the Winnipeg School Division.

This nutrition program is part of a $30 million investment by the province, as well as about $4 million from the federal government, and $1.4 million over four years from the Schoeder Foundation.

“I’ve gone door to door, over ten thousand doors in the last four to five years and I’ve seen what some of these homes look like,” said Malaya Marcelino, the Minister of Labour & Immigration.

MP Ben Carr added, “This is nothing short of a game changer in terms of the way in which we can improve the lives of our kids.”

All 79 schools have received nutrition funding, and the Winnipeg School Division has ensured the funds are split by each school’s needs.