The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is providing Food Depot Alimentaire with up to $550,000 to give more students in need better access to healthy foods.

Beginning this week, 110 schools in the Anglophone East, Anglophone West, Anglophone South and Francophone sud school districts will be supplied with additional healthy foods.

Food Depot Alimentaire already works with more than 50 schools in the Anglophone East, Anglophone West and Francophone sud districts in supporting a free breakfast program. Through the organization’s local food buying strategy, this new partnership will allow local farms to play a larger role in providing nutrition to students in need.

Other existing community partners, such as Breakfast Club of Canada and the Brewer Foundation, will be invited to support the rollout of programming. The funding will go toward provision of foods such as milk and other dairy products; eggs; fruits and vegetables; cereals and grains; and condiments.

The government funding is intended to cover the supply of food until December. Education and Early Childhood Development will work with Food Depot Alimentaire to ensure funding for the second half of the school year. It will also continue to explore options to expand healthy food services to more schools with the help of community partners.