The Nova Scotia government announced a new funding program for schools that aims to make them healthier places.
The Healthy Schools Fund will give every public school across the province $5000 plus an additional $1 per student.
Education Minister Becky Druhan announced the program at Hebbville Academy where she explained that the funds will be essentially string-free.
“I’m excited about this program because schools like this (Hebbville Academy) can choose things that work for them,” Druhan said. “I know kids have always loved building forts outside here in the green space out back and that’s just an example of something they might choose to use the funds on.”
Officially the funds must be used for ‘programs or activities that support physical or mental health or cultural awareness’, which leaves lots of room for interpretation, and according to Druhan that is by design.
Schools do not need to apply for the funding and it’s expected for funds to be distributed very quickly.
Representatives from the Department of Agriculture were also on hand in Hebbville to announce another move from the province to support schools.
Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow was pleased to share that the Nova Scotia School Milk Program will keep prices the same for the remainder of the school year despite pressure from the market.
“We want to support families who are feeling the impacts of inflation, as well as dairy producers and processors who are experiencing rising production costs,” said Morrow. “By covering the increased costs for the rest of this year, we’re providing students with nutritious local milk each day through the Nova Scotia School Milk Program.”
Currently, the NS School Milk Program requires any school participating to agree to provide students with milk at a cost not greater than 40 cents per 250 mL serving.
Last year it was determined that milk prices in schools would increase by 5 cents per 25o mL, with the price change set to take place at the start of 2022.
That change is still set to take place but the government will be footing the cost of the increase for the remainder of this school year meaning students will get milk at the same price.
