Expansion of school lunch and breakfast programs to all K-9 schools and pre-Kindergartens, increases to the NL Child Benefit, and a targeted poverty-reduction plan for seniors are among the measures announced by the provincial government yesterday.

Premier Andrew Furey says targeting poverty has to start with child poverty and they’re putting a special emphasis on ensuring that children have the best start in life. He says the number one predictor of adult poverty, is child poverty.

Furey announced a 300 per cent increase in the NL Child Benefit and more government funding to expand school lunch and breakfast programs to all pre-kindergarten and K-9 schools across the province starting in September.

The pre-natal infant nutritional supplement is being extended to age five, while the comfort allowance under Income Support benefits is being increased by $50 per month for those living in temporary accommodations like emergency homeless shelters.

A targeted poverty-reduction program for seniors will be announced in the coming months.

While most agree that any steps taken to reduce child poverty is a good thing, the opposition parties are raising concerns about how far government’s poverty reduction plan will go.

Opposition Critic Craig Pardy says the former PC government’s plan included an educational element, which this plan does not have.

He says the former plan noted that 60 per cent of people in poverty did not graduate high school, so education should be an integral part of the plan.

NDP Leader Jim Dinn says while there are some solutions presented in the plan, he gets the impression that it is “piecemeal, hodge podge” and not a wholistic approach.

He says the plan is missing a housing component.