The program that gives breakfast and wholesome snacks to college students is feeling the COVID pinch.
Local colleges within the Bluewater District School Board are in search of volunteers to help with the Ontario Student Nutrition Program.
The Ontario Student Nutrition Program (OSNP) supplies funding and help to 61 colleges in Grey and Bruce Counties. OSNP altered program supply throughout pandemic college closures to proceed to fulfill the wants of scholars and households that confronted challenges.
The program completed this by partnering with different neighborhood businesses to distribute meals bins and grocery reward playing cards. Now, with colleges open in September, they’re tasked with providing wholesome meals packages with restricted budgets and sharply rising meals costs. Temporary emergency funds that had been accessible to assist with elevated prices and COVID-19 are up to now not accessible this 12 months, but bills are anticipated to be increased now than ever.
The program that gives breakfast and wholesome snacks to college students is feeling the COVID pinch. Locally, over 18,000 college students have entry to wholesome meals at little or no price in the course of the college day. However, with increased meals costs, college meals budgets are even tighter this 12 months than standard.
Additionally, with college closures and restrictions on exterior guests, some volunteers and neighborhood teams that helped run these meals packages haven’t returned because the begin of the pandemic.
“COVID introduced plenty of challenges for us but it surely additionally demonstrated that faculty meals packages are a necessary service”, says Danielle Findlay, Supervisor of Community Relations for OSNP. “Student Nutrition Programs enhance college students’ general well being and educational achievement. They additionally supply protected and inclusive areas and foster connections to the atmosphere. So, it’s essential that we get again to pre-COVID programming as quickly as we will.”
To successfully meet that aim, many faculties are recruiting volunteers. For extra data on methods to volunteer for the Ontario Student Nutrition Program, contact a college close to you or go to this system’s website or contact Bev Gateman at: [email protected]
OSNP is a program administered by VON Canada. Information on methods to donate is offered on VON’s website.
https://www.collingwoodtoday.ca/the-blue-mountains-and-grey-highlands/bluewater-schools-need-volunteers-for-nutrition-program-5766994
