The provincial government will spend $2 million and hold down the price of a carton of milk to promote healthier living in schools.

The Healthy Schools fund, announced Monday, will provide $5,000 and a dollar per student to schools to support physical and mental health or cultural awareness.

Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Becky Druhan says each school will consult with their School Advisory Councils, staff and students to determine how the money will be spent.

“One of the exciting things about this is that every school is going to be able to use it in ways that will benefit them and really meet their own needs,” said Druhan.

Those ways could include structured programming like sports teams or social activities, or less structured groups that promote health and cultural awareness within the schools.

Also announced, the school milk program will hold the price of a 250ml carton of milk to 40 cents until September 2022.

Students would have seen a price increase of five cents in January due to increased production costs before the province agreed to foot the bill for the increase for the rest of the school year.

About 330 schools participate in the school milk program.

The cost of the program has been shared between dairy producers, processors, and the department of agriculture since its launch in 1974.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.