Free breakfast on the menu for all New Brunswick schools by September

Food Depot Alimentaire, the non-profit responsible for distributing the New Brunswick government's free breakfast program to 135 schools, says the other 160 schools in the province will have the program by September.

"A lot of people were advocating for this for many years," Stephane Sirois, the executive director of the organization, said.

"So we're really happy to finally see this come to fruition."

Expanding the free, universal breakfast program to all New Brunswick schools was a promise made by the Liberals in September. The province announced on Friday the federal government will provide $11.2 million to assist with the expansion.

While community groups currently provide snacks and breakfasts to the schools not covered under the government program, including all schools will put everyone on equal footing.

Sirois said the expansion requires additional people, more storage space and more equipment. 

"When we order cereal now, we'll have to order for more than double what we currently order," he said.

"So that involves, you know, working with our suppliers, distributors, making sure things are available in stock.

"There's some work to do with the supply chain, with our resources, but we're ready for that."

The program distributes about a dozen items to every school, including bread, bagels, cereal, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs and fruit. 

One topic that is occupying the minds of many Canadians is the "shop local" initiative. 

On Feb. 3, U.S. President Donald Trump put a 30-day pause on his promise of widespread tariffs on Canadian imports, but with tariffs still a possibility, many Canadians have started buying local. 

LISTEN | Food Depot Alimentaire on breakfast program expansion:

Information Morning - Moncton6:40New federal funding means all N.B. students will soon have access to free breakfast programs across the province

Stephane Sirois is the executive director of Food Depot Alimentaire.

Sirois said the bagels used for the program are from Moncton bakery Fancy Pokket, the eggs are from Maritime Pride and a lot of the apples are from Verger Belliveau Orchards.

But other products, such as oranges, grapes and pears, still need to be found elsewhere though, said Sirois. 

"There's a lot of unknown, but we're used to that — we dealt with this with food banks," said Sirois, pointing to the challenges that came up during the pandemic.

"We'll adapt. There's different distributors, different suppliers. We always try to support New Brunswick first."