On cold days, Harley Delorme makes pancakes or oatmeal to go with the juice he serves for breakfast to students at Broadway Elementary School in Melfort, Sask.
Most days, the students who come before school starts get juice and cereal. Before recess, all 98 students in the Kindergarten to Grade 6 school get a snack of vegetables and dip, fruit yogurt, cheese buns on Fridays or bannock on special days.
Contrary to the view that kids hate vegetables, Delorme said it is their favourite snack. He said teachers have commented that the snacks make the students happier and more alert.
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Delorme is the community school associate for the Saskatchewan Nutrition Advisory Council for Kids, or SNACK, program offered by his school the past three years.
Kelly Berlinic of Quill Lake, Sask., co-ordinator of SNACK, said the council was formed last May to ensure the province gets the full use of funds it receives from the nonprofit, non-governmental Breakfast for Learning program.
Last year, SNACK had 77 programs in schools, an 83 percent increase from the year before, when no council existed.
The 2006 program was funded by $140,000 from the national group.
Berlinic said schools in the program must offer a minimum of two food groups with their snacks or breakfasts. Some also offer hot lunches for free.
“It is a universal program not limited to children of the disadvantaged.”
Families with both parents working are often too busy to feed their children breakfast. Young teenagers, especially girls, tend to skip breakfast in a mistaken belief they will lose weight.
Berlinic said principals have told her that snacks before recess reduce negative behaviour on the playground.
Berlinic volunteers to do dishes at her local school because it gives her a better grounding in the programs and issues. Right now, the biggest problem is SNACK’s success.
“Unfortunately we’re running out of money.”
She said Saskatchewan’s 2007 allocation from the national program is not yet known. It is based on student population and Statistics Canada poverty rate figures.
For this year, Saskatchewan school requests total about $500,000.
Each school that submits a plan will get money, but none will get all they ask for. That’s why a big part of the SNACK program is acquiring partners to help fund the food program or volunteers to work with it. Berlinic said her school gets discounts from the local Co-op store for food supplies and the local credit union pays for paper plates and serviettes.
“Our biggest initiative of the year is the extreme school makeover challenge.”
Berlinic said SNACK is encouraging schools to submit plans to create a healthier school environment.
“One of the components is nutrition, but also we’re looking at physical fitness and is it a safe and caring school.”
Schools have until May 1 to submit their health action plans to SNACK. Winners will be announced in September. Mosaic potash mining company is offering $10,000 in prizes to winning schools.
For more information, phone Berlinic at 306-383-2691 or e-mail breakfastforlearning@sasktel.net.
