Students in Pontiac schools will have a new lunch option when they enter the cafeteria this fall thanks to a new initiative from local food bank Bouffe Pontiac.
In a project called AlimentAction Pontiac, local organizations teamed up to identify the community’s food needs. The Jardin Éducatif du Pontiac, l’Entourelle, AutonHomme Pontiac, and la Maison de la Famille Pontiac were involved in planning and consulting on the project, with Bouffe Pontiac being responsible for rolling out the program itself.
“We’re cooking dishes to give to the school network, so that when a child shows up without a lunch, they will have a meal,” said Bouffe Pontiac director Kim Laroche of the idea behind the first part of the project.
She said the idea came from a meeting of community partners that sat down to discuss mental health issues, but ended up concluding that school nutrition was an issue.
“A lot of people were saying [ . . . ] that children don’t come with a lunch. This is problematic,” Laroche said.
This spring, Bouffe’s project coordinator Jacinthe Paquette conducted an informal survey of local schools that found a large need for prepared lunches, since many students do not come to school with a lunch.
“We had a school environment that told us that sometimes we have kids who arrive with a lunch, but it’s a very old sandwich,” offered Paquette as an example.
Bouffe Pontiac staff have been spending time over the past few weeks cooking and prepping the meals to be distributed in the schools in the coming weeks. One example is a beef patty with carrots, potatoes and gravy, while other potential meals include simple fare such as pate chinois and meatballs with vegetables.
“It’s really just to make sure there’s something in their belly,” Laroche said.
Petits-Ponts school network director Anne Marie Belleau, whose schools are among those receiving the meals, said she is seeing a big need for lunches right now in her schools.
“What we see is that kids have less good food in their lunchboxes like fruits and vegetables because it’s so expensive right now, and some kinds don’t have enough to eat.”
She said she is looking forward to offering the program, which will supplement the breakfast program the school already runs for all students.
“We just offer it to everyone because we believe that kids need to have their tummy full if we want them to learn,” she said.
Laroche said while the program’s aim is to feed mouths that might not have lunches to bring from home, anybody is able to take advantage of the program.
“It’s for those who are a little more underprivileged, but it’s also for young people who are like, ‘Oh geeze, I forgot my lunchbox’,” said Paquette.
The second part of the AlimentAction project, which is still in the works, is a coupon system which allows clients of Bouffe Pontiac to buy fresh produce from the Jardin Éducatif.
“It’s $20 coupons that we can hand out to our clients and then they can go to the garden and grab vegetables and fruits [ . . . ] It’s fresh,” said Laroche.
Laroche said the program has funding for at least one year, and will hopefully receive funding for another year after that.
