Local school food program to benefit from provincial and federal funding

Chair of Kingston's Food Sharing Project hopes the additional funding will become permanent.

The Food Sharing Project in Kingston is welcoming the news of increased funding to school lunch programs.

The federal and provincial governments announced last Friday that they were going to make commitments to the programs.

The federal government contributes $200 million a year to the program as part of their $1 billion, five-year commitment that began in 2024.

Chair of the Food Sharing Project Brenda Moore says she was thrilled when hearing of the news that there are plans to make the funding permanent.

Moore also hopes the provincial funding will become a permanent fixture in the budget.

The Food Sharing Project supplies nutritious food to the 88 schools in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. Their school lunch program, Lunch is Ready, provides ready-made meals to seven schools.

They have since added one more school and Moore says with the additional funding, they will be able to add more schools to their lunch program.

Since the pilot project launched earlier this year, the Food Sharing Project has prepared and packed 12,000 lunches. Overall, the organization ships out 450 boxes of food to the 88 schools.

Moore says their purchasing power enables them to get more bang for their buck.

Moore says with the ongoing tariff war between Canada and the US, there is some uncertainty in the air with regards to jobs in the Kingston area and they want to be ready to support families that will be impacted.

The Food Sharing Project continues to look for volunteer in helping them prepare snacks and meals for the schools. Anyone interested can apply by going to their website. 

Story by Ken Hashizume