BC Green Party MLA Sonia Furstenau is calling for the province to fund a universal food program for all schools. According to stats Canada, the cost of food in Canada has increased 6.80 percent as of August of 2023 over the same month in the previous year, and MLA Furstenau has been quoted as saying "schools in the province need to increase food security locally."

The province has pledged over $214M over 3 years for food programs in schools, but the Green Party’s campaign has raised awareness as to the need for kids to feel food secure in order to learn.

Food security has been a cause of concern for British Columbians, and in the north, where communities are smaller than the metropolitan cities down south, federal and provincial funding, along with school programs and community groups are finding unique solutions to removing the barrier of an empty belly for high school and elementary students.

Houston Secondary School and Twain Elementary in Houston BC have 400 students collectively. Their food program (which offers breakfast at 7AM and lunch) services around 200 students daily. CICK News talked to Principal Jaksun Grice about the potential benefits of the proposed Green Party plan and about the current program in local schools.

"The bulk funding comes from the provincial government. [It's called] the Student Affordability Fund and on top of that, we have very generous donations from the community throughout Houston. Just as an example, Buy Low Foods every week gives us numerous free boxes of fruit and vegetables that we greatly appreciate. We have several local ranchers who either donate beef or give us beef at a very reduced rate, which is fabulous. And then on top of that, there's also local market gardeners and community members that will just donate money or we love it in the springtime where when people's gardens start going, quite often we have people deliver produce from their gardens. We still have a large segment of our population with in our schools that is very vulnerable and struggles with food security." - Jaksun Grice.

Listen to the full interview with Jaksun Grice in the link below.