The Grande Prairie Public School District is reaching out to their school community for support to re-start a vital program for their students.
The snack program has been offered through the Catholic School Division at St. Clements, Avondale, and Hillside since 2003.
However they have since decided to pull the snack program from those schools in order to better serve their own students.
GP Public Superintendent Carol Ann McDonald says she understands why the Catholic School District made the decision they did, and hopes they will find enough support to get their own program going just as successfully in time.
They do have about $15,000 in grant funding, but it’s not nearly enough.
“The cost of food alone last year was over $45,000. What we’re hoping to do is reach out to our staff through the United Way donations from our payroll deduction and see if we can ear mark some funds to get us through this year.”
McDonald says they also have $20,000 in emergency funding from last year that they are using to help give the program some legs.
After hearing about the issue, the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie also announced this afternoon that its board has approved funding to the tune of $10,000 to support the program at the two schools.