PEI NDP Leader Mike Redmond voiced concerns Tuesday morning about a post on Glen Stewart Primary School’s website about its breakfast program.
The school’s breakfast program has drawn big numbers this year, and the post said the program was not to support social connections and it asked that only students who are in need of breakfast take part.
But Redmond took issue with the post saying the school administrative staff were stigmatizing children by indirectly labelling the breakfast as only for the poor kids.
Later Tuesday, the post on the school’s website was replaced with a clarification saying the school is totally committed to the breakfast program and no child would ever be turned away or asked why they were there. It does ask for parents for support in helping to manage the size of the program, which has up to 300 students attending on a daily basis. The clarification says that often 15 to 20 minutes of instructional time is being lost because of the time it takes to operate the breakfast program each day.
The school says it may have to look at other models if the numbers haven’t adjusted.