The government of Manitoba in west-central Canada announced financial support to improve access to nutritious meals in the province's schools.

Wab Kinew, leader of Manitoba's New Democratic Party (NDP), said that a comprehensive school nutrition program will be implemented by September 2024, at the start of the next school year, according to a previous promise.

In the coming weeks, the Manitoba government intends to inject $1.5 million to eliminate the waiting list at the "Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba" (CNCM) by the end of the current school year.

This non-profit organization has distributed the money to meal and snack programs in schools that request help. At the beginning of this year, there were 51 programs on the waiting list.

The Department of Education for early childhood also said that the comprehensive program is still in the early stages of development and there is no proposed cost at this time.

Before the New Democratic Party, which leans left, won a majority government in Winnipeg on October 3, Kinew promised during the election campaign a comprehensive school nutrition program costing the province $30 million annually, according to party estimates.

"This does not mean that all children in Manitoba must eat within this school program, but the program should be available in all school sectors and all regions of the province," Kinew said in an interview conducted with him at the end of the year.

The idea is to secure a food meal program accessible to everyone. Citing Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba

It is worth noting that the victory of the New Democratic Party in Manitoba led by Kinew in the recent general election was a Canadian precedent, as it was the first time that a person from the First Nations held the position of premier, either provincially or federally.

Manitoba is one of the three prairie provinces, and the fifth largest of Canada's ten provinces by population, inhabited by about 1.47 million people according to estimates by Statistics Canada for the last quarter of 2023.