Higher demand expected as P.E.I. children's summer food program returns for 5th year
About 143,000 meals were delivered last summer to 2,300 Island children
The province's Children's Summer Food Program is now open for registration, marking the fifth summer it has operated.
Barb Ramsay, P.E.I.'s minister of social development and seniors, said the program served about 2,300 children and delivered around 143,000 meals last year.
And those numbers may increase again this summer, she said.
"Food insecurity is very concerning, but this is one of the programs that we have to combat that," she told CBC's Island Morning.
"It's down 10 per cent. It went from 41 to 31," she said, referring to the most recent Statistics Canada data that shows the percentage of Island children living in food-insecure households dropped from 41 per cent in 2022 to 31 per cent in 2023. That's 10 percentage points or about 25 per cent.
Ramsay said the province also supports P.E.I.'s school food program, which operates on a pay-what-you-can model during the academic year, and the seniors' food program. A poverty elimination strategy is currently in development and is scheduled to be released this fall.
As for this summer's program, Ramsay said the total cost is not yet known because that depends on how many families sign up. The department budgets roughly $8 per meal.
"We're prepared for whatever the cost is," she said.
Families can register for the Children's Summer Food Program online through the P.E.I. government's website.
Behind the meals
Duke Cormier, owner of Fiveelevenwest in Summerside, is one of the local food suppliers for the program.
Ramsay's department sends his staff the participant numbers — typically 450 to 500 children — and information about any special dietary needs. They prepare the meals, package and freeze them, and have them ready for delivery every Wednesday morning.
The recipes used come from the province's school food program; Cormier's company is also a part of that.
Cormier said the menu offers a diverse variety of dishes, ranging from sweet and sour chicken with rice, shepherd's pie, and burgers with mashed potatoes and vegetables, to creamy chicken pasta, lasagna, and butter chicken.
"We try to do everything as healthy as we can. At the same time, there's a balance between healthy and what they'll eat," he said. "The P.E.I.'s school food program has done a very good job with their recipes to close that gap.
"Originally maybe they were — and maybe it's a bad thing to say — too healthy. But now, they've got to the point where they're injecting vegetables, nutrition into every part of the meal they can."
Having been with the program since it started, Cormier said he's proud of the work and care everyone put into this, from his business and the province to the delivery drivers.
"We are in contact with our drivers all day long, for instance, and they've gone to a household, and perhaps the person's not home, and the meal's coming back. And then we're taking another bag back to them. There's an effort to try to really ensure that these people are getting reached."
Ramsay added that this summer, the province plans to hire 25 to 30 drivers, and they've already received about 60 applications.
"There's a tremendous amount of work that goes into this program, and I'm going to keep it going as long as I possibly can," the minister said.
With files from Island Morning