Twenty-three thousand kids a day in Hamilton have their morning breakfast; not at home, but at school.

Until Tuesday there were a number of different projects, and partners involved in making that happen. The Social Planning and Research Council has brought all of the programs, formerly known as Hamilton Partners in Nutrition, under one banner.

The new brand will be known as “Hamilton Tastebuds” student nutrition collaborative. And in addition to providing a nutritious breakfast, the new program seeks to do some teaching as well. It’s partnerning with local growers and farmers to bring as much, locally grown food as possible into the schools, and to teach kids where the food comes from, and how it ends up on our table. Anna Rickard, a grade 7 student at Templemead School, has been a volunteer for the nutrition program for the last year and tells us what the kids get out of the program, while the manager of Hamilton Tastebuds, Deirdre Pike, explains the philosophy behind the new initiative.

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