With two weeks to go before the new school year, an organization that provides school breakfast programs in Ottawa is highlighting numbers it describes as concerning. According to CBC News, the group says more children are relying on its services, and it expects those numbers to keep rising as classes resume.
New data cited by CBC shows more and more children in Ottawa are showing up to school hungry. Those involved in the breakfast programs fear the figures will only get worse once the school year begins, framing school food as an increasingly essential part of the school day rather than an optional extra.
The scale of the need is set against wider hardship in the city. With one in four households in Ottawa experiencing food insecurity, organizers say families are being forced to make difficult choices, and it is that pressure they connect to the growing reliance on breakfast at school.
The Ottawa Network for Education works with Breakfast Club of Canada to provide breakfast to children in need at school. At the end of last school year, the organization says just over 22,000 students were using its program every day, spread across 232 local public schools in the city.
That total marks a clear increase from recent years. The organization says the number of daily users had stayed in a similar range of about 16,000 to 18,000 just a few years earlier, so the jump to more than 22,000 represents a significant rise in demand over a short period.
Breakfast Club of Canada says the pressure is being felt nationwide and not only in Ottawa. The group reports about a 38 percent increase in the cost of running its programs, driven by higher food costs and the cost of transporting it, which adds to the strain on school communities trying to meet rising demand.
Funding for the effort comes in part through the federal government's national school food program. In a statement, the government said it is investing 140 million dollars across the country this school year. To keep up locally, the organization says it is adding 15 new breakfast programs this September, which should support 1,300 more students in Ottawa.