BC Liberal Government Increases Funds for School Lunch Program

• In the face of tough economic times, funding for the Province’s CommunityLINK program to help vulnerable children is going up to more than $51 million this year.
• The Ministry of Education and Housing and Social Development have partnered to support this program.
• This year, $48,454,000 is coming from community gaming grants and $2,551,912 from the education budget, bringing total funding to $51,005,912.
• That’s an increase of more than half-a-million dollars from the $50,495 million provided for the last school year.
• Last year, CommunityLINK funding increased from $45.8 million to nearly $50.5 million.
• CommunityLINK (Learning Includes Nutrition and Knowledge)  provides funding to all 60 boards of education. 
• The funding helps school districts provide services such as breakfast and lunch programs, inner city and community school programs, school-based support workers and counselling for at-risk children and youth.
• The purpose of CommunityLINK programs and services is to improve the educational performance of vulnerable students.
• In determining which students may be vulnerable, school districts may consider:  low income measures; involvement with the provincial social service ministries and related agencies; community socio-economic demographics; information obtained through community mapping; and other relevant information including staff observation and self-identification.
• School districts have the responsibility and flexibility to determine the most effective use of CommunityLINK funding for programs and services to support vulnerable students in their districts.
• CommunityLINK funding generally goes to support meal and snack programs, child and youth workers, inner city and community schools and healthy schools and literacy. 

Provincially, the following trends emerge:

• approximately 25% is used for meal programs including hot lunches, bagged lunches, breakfasts and healthy snacks. Many districts partner with local organizations to leverage this funding further
• approximately 40% is used for child and youth workers who provide targeted assistance to vulnerable children and youth
• approximately 25% of the funding is used for inner city and community schools
• the remaining 10% of the funding is used for healthy schools, literacy and other local initiatives