LETTER: What is the price for student nutrition?

Editor: I’m responding to The Chatham Voice’s May 5 editorial, “Great Idea, but costly.” The editorial on the local lunch program throws the baby out with the bathwater.

For Canadian families, the opportunity to make sure every child has a good meal is paramount.

I would encourage you to look at the benefits of such a program, and the difference it can make in our children’s health and learning.

I agree that we need to have a program that is economically feasible to taxpayers, but before you go proposing canceling the initiative on cost alone may be short sighted.

There is a price to pay, but a huge benefit that comes with it.

I would also encourage you to keep in mind that this is a pilot program being tried in C-K that has countless communities across Canada looking in, and the costs and organizing this program could change once the program is put in place.

Key additional points to consider would be:  the benefit to families, restaurants, and small business owners too.

I would encourage you to come up with solutions on how we can better feed our children, and do it economically.

After talking to the principal of the St. Elizabeth school, she said the atmosphere around the program was outstanding.

She echoed a statement we’ve all heard before: well-fed children learn better, parents don’t have to plan the lunch and save time, parents also ensure their children are getting fed a nutritious meal.

Happier kids, and less stressed parents have huge benefits.

We are in fact creating the next leaders in our community.

There is a cost to building a good foundation.

Greg Hetherington
Wallaceburg

Editor’s note: We are huge fans of the concept, but view the $96,000-a-day cost in Chatham-Kent alone as a roadblock. As our final two sentences in the editorial stated, “Is there a healthy compromise that can be made so the concept is just too enticing for a government to ignore? The more enticing it can be for all levels of government, the more likely it will proceed.”