New Brunswick has walked back a policy implementing healthier foods at the province’s schools, saying it was not intended to issue a “hard stop” to special occasion activities.
The decision comes after a growing backlash from parents, students, educators and the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association.
Schools had been forced to cancel annual school fundraisers such as bake sales, pizza parties, and cake walks because the food served and sold at the events has been banned under the new policy changes.
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Stephanie Patterson, a spokesperson for the Anglophone East School District says all districts received an update from John McLaughlin, Deputy Minister for the Department of Education, on Friday clarifying the new policy, known as Policy 711.
“The spirit of the policy is not to eradicate the rare special occasions where students bring food from home to share with their friends, or when special activities are planned with parents to celebrate important events and holidays,” McLaughlin wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Global News.
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The previously planned fundraisers can now go ahead as planned, Patterson said.
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Heather McDonald, whose children attend Birchmount School in Moncton, told Global News last week that the province’s revised public school nutrition policy was only recently revealed to her home and school parent’s group.
The group was forced to cancel their fall fair that typically raises $10,000 to buy things like school supplies, which she says are underfunded by the province.
“Last year, our art teacher ran out of paper for art class and our music teacher was not able to continue the jazz band because we did not have cleaning supplies to clean the instruments,” she told Global News.
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McDonald said fundraising dollars are also used to buy lunches and snacks for students whose families struggle to buy food.
“It is going to affect our neediest students in ways that nobody was thinking about when they made the policy,” she said.
In response to the news on Friday, McDonald said that it was a good first step but that she is interested in starting a dialogue in order to iron out the new details.
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