Grant allows Tappen school to explore healthy food options

A $8,200 grant will assist Carlin Elementary Middle School students to learn about access to healthy food options provided by the community.

The grant, provided by the Farm to School Canada Grant for the 2022-23 school year, are offered in partnership with the Whole Kids Foundation, open to all K-12 schools across Canada.

This initiative create opportunities for students to access healthy, local food at school and participate in hands-on learning that connects them to the local food system and community members involved in it.

Carlin vice-principal Sandra Major explained the school will be using the funds to upgrade its capacity at the school to provide food including buying crockpots, knives and a few other kitchen essentials.

There are also plans to purchase a freezer and upgrade the existing stove in support of the school’s soup program, an endeavour to source locally grown produce for soup for the students.

Major said the Parent Advisory Council soup program organizer, Amanda Jackson, has devoted countless hours and been personally instrumental in getting the soup program up and running.

Some of the grant funding will both provide a small honorarium in recognition of all the work and a food safe/distribution of health foods in schools training opportunities.

Carlin becomes one of 33 schools across Canada to receive a 2022 Farm to School Canada Grant, and one of 166 other schools to receive grants from Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) since 2016.

F2CC is a partnership-based organization with a vision for vibrant and sustainable regional food systems that supports the health of people and planet.

To learn more about the Farm to School movement in Canada, and how its connecting students with food and the systems that produce it, visit http://www.farmtocafeteriacanada.ca.

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