Dozens of people attended a meeting in Dartmouth Thursday night to discuss hunger in the community’s north end schools.
Roxanne Manning, executive director of the Dartmouth Family Centre said families need access to food, specifically healthy food.
“We don’t want to be talking about more packaged, processed foods. We want to be looking at more fresh food, and access to the foods that are nutritious and help us prevent chronic disease,” she said.
The meeting, which included a meal, was held at the Dartmouth North Community Food Centre and started at 5 p.m.
Manning said hunger in the area is an issue with several layers; part of that is the need for skills development.
“Cooking, gardening, learning how to prepare our food, so I think that’s another area that we need to focus on. As well, I think we need to look at the broader systemic issues of poverty,” she said.
Jill White, the school nutritionist for the Halifax Regional School Board, said she’s aware there are students who attend schools hungry.
“It takes a village to raise a child and, certainly when we’re talking about the hunger issues, they’re not going to be solved in one particular spot, it takes a whole community coming together,” she said.
Several schools have tried to alleviate the problem by introducing cooking clubs, and breakfast and gardening programs.
“When I’m hungry, I don’t think as well, I don’t do as well, I don’t always make the best decisions,” said Alana Conrad, vice principal for John Martin Junior High.
Students at her school who act out often do so because they’re hungry, she added.
“I’ll give them something to eat or drink, and it helps to calm them. They will engage in a conversation with me in a much more respectful way, and I find that we have a better conflict resolution,” said Conrad, referencing some of the extra food collected through programs at her school.
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