Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling for a national school lunch program to be implemented in the upcoming budget.
Singh says food bank usage across the country is at its highest level since 1989, with more than one million children living in poverty, noting Canada is the only G7 country without such a food program.
“Parents are doing everything they can to take care of their kids, but the cost of food just keeps going up. In a country as rich as ours, no child should ever have to go to school hungry,” said Singh. “While parents make big sacrifices to keep food on the table, grocery store CEOs like Galen Weston are making record profits at Canadians’ expense.”
“Having a national school lunch program has been an empty promise of the liberals for years, but they have failed to make it a reality. Meanwhile, as families continue to struggle with the rising costs of food, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives voted against a school lunch program for kids this past December. This is shameful. Ensuring kids have enough to eat should not be up for debate.”
St. John’s NDP candidate and national party president Mary Shortall emphasized how the move could help Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who are struggling with the rising cost of food, adding nearly a quarter of people in this province are food insecure, the highest rate in Canada.
She said programs like these will be an immediate lift for families who are stuck wondering how they are going to keep their child fed.
“Canada as a country is too rich to simply turn a blind eye to kids who are forced to go hungry,” added Shortall. “And that is what we are doing right now, it’s simply unacceptable. New Democrats will continue the fight to make the government do the right thing and help the people that need it.”