While many children are excited to be out of school for the summer, there are some who will be missing the needed supports that are provided in terms of school breakfast and lunch programs.

Provincial coordinator of the Transition House Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dan Meades, says over 15 per cent of children in the province are food insecure.

Over the summer, that means more families will be turning to food banks but, as Meades explains, many of those organizations have bare shelves.

While Meades praises government for expanding their school lunch program, “it doesn’t help anyone in July and August.”

He says if government wants people to afford basic needs they can’t have income support rates below the poverty line. He says one of the keys to addressing poverty is to index social assistance to inflation and “until they do that they are not serious about reducing poverty, they are not serious about food security, and they are choosing to have 26 per cent of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians – 15 per cent of kids – go hungry today. That’s a policy decision by this government.