Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Breakfast for Learning program plays an important role in helping our children succeed in school, and I’m pleased that this government recognized them with a gift of $5,000 following the most recent Governor General’s visit.
Breakfast for Learning provides grants and support for school-based breakfast, lunch and snack programs. Last year Breakfast for Learning provided grants to 47 of the 49 schools in the Northwest Territories. More than half the students in the NWT had access to these nutrition programs on a daily basis.
When students are hungry, it is hard to learn. Nutrition impacts the student’s ability to focus. It impacts their levels of fatigue. It impacts their classroom behaviour, their self-esteem and their classroom attitude. But most of all it impacts their health and their school attendance. We know that education opens doors, but the first step is to open the door to the schools and the classrooms.
This government is working hard to increase the schools’ attendance and graduation rates. School meal and snack programs not only encourage students to get to school but they also help them learn once they are there.
Corporate donations and non-government agencies are keeping snack and breakfast programs running in our communities. By collaborating with organizations like Breakfast for Learning, we can maximize our efforts in supporting students. There currently exist a significant number of stakeholders that share a common desire to ensure that our children are well nourished and ready to learn.
We now need to solidify our collective efforts and establish shared goals and objectives while building on existing infrastructure and valuing work that has already been done.
Mr. Speaker, it is disheartening that in Canada one in 10 children and one in four First Nation children live below the poverty line. Those are national statistics and not NWT statistics. This places them at a risk for hunger and for food and security. At the same time, more than one in four children and youth in Canada are overweight and obese. While pairing hunger and obesity may sound like a contradiction, their impact is similarly devastating. The immediate and long-term consequences of childhood hunger plus overweight and obesity affect both the academic performance and the health of children.
Mr. Speaker, at this time may I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member’s statement? Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Consequences range from inability to focus in school to behavioural issues. Combine these with the health conditions that were previously seen almost exclusively among adults but are now seen in children, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, high cholesterol and sleep apnea are all leading to a preventable health crisis, something that we can address here in the Legislative Assembly in this government. Recognizing the importance that nutrition plays in educating our children, we need to look for ways that we can ensure that children in our territory have daily access to healthy foods. School meal and snack programs are effective and measurable in this regard. Schools readily recognize the impact that hunger and poor choices have on learning, yet schools are forced to cobble together meal and snack programs, taxing already overburdened school staff to plan, shop for and prepare as well as serve the food. On top of this, schools are constantly having to source funds for these much needed programs.
Breakfast for Learning has been providing funding to the support of NWT schools since its inception in 1992. They are well recognized as leaders in the field of school nutrition. I am proud that our government brought public recognition to the work that they do. However, we must find additional ways to support their work and, by extension, school nutrition. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
