The B.C. government is providing $60 million to school districts across the province to help pay for student meals and school supplies.
School districts will work with parent advisory councils, First Nations and communities to prioritize where money should be allocated.
“Many families in B.C. are feeling the effects of global inflation on daily costs, including groceries, school supplies and other school expenses,” said Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Education and Child Care in a release.
“We’re taking action by providing more funding that school districts will use to help meet the needs of families and students.”
Funds will also help cover after-school activities and field trips.
Provincial officials said more measures to help people being hit hard by inflation will be announced next week by the Ministry of Finance.
The Cariboo/Chilcotin School District will receive $547,562, while the Quesnel School District will get $357,657.
Quesnel School Superintendent Dan Lowndes says they will be meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) to begin the process of determining how this money will be put to good use.
“We really want to make sure we’re thoughtful on how we will spend for both food security, so ramping up food programs we have in the community already that we support, whether it’s through lunch programs or breakfast programs, to be able to be able to just really build on the capacity of the structures that are already there.  The piece around spending on family assistance, we’ll be working closely with Principals on that. The intention of the dollars is really to help families around inflationary costs. We’ve all seen it, whether it’s at the grocery store or the gas pumps, so very welcome news coming from the Ministry to support families.”
Lowndes says they know that this is top of mind for families right now as they get ready to head back to school, so they want to make sure that they have a process in place to access the money as soon as possible.
(With files by Josiah Spyker-MyEastKootenayNow)