Manitoba news: province signs onto federal school food deal [Video]

WINNIPEG –

Manitoba is the second province to sign a deal with the federal Liberals to expand school food programs across the province.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced the agreement during a press conference at a kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school in Winnipeg on Friday.

The province is to receive about $17.2 million over the next three years under the National School Food Program.

Kinew called the program one of the “most consequential public policy interventions” seen in recent Canadian history.

“We know that when kids show up to school hungry it’s a barrier to learning,” Kinew told reporters.

“If we do this investment together and we can say at the end of the school year we fed some hungry kids, we feel pretty good about that.”

The Liberal government set aside $1 billion over five years in the last budget to expand access to such programs across …