A school snack program will be funded for the next 3 years by the Fort McMurray Airport Authority. The snack program is operated by the Wood Buffalo Food Bank Association, and many children in the region come from homes where food security may be scarce in the current tough economic times. The airport authority has announced that they will be providing funding in the amount of $12,000 each year for the next 3 years. Wood Buffalo Food Bank Association executive director Arianna Johnson said “Multi-year agreements are a huge opportunity for us to spend more time focused on the actual work of our agency as opposed to constantly writing grant applications and seeking additional funding. It makes planning a lot easy, it makes maintaining programs a lot easier, it just overall makes life easier.”

The school snack program, called Snack Attack, is designed to provide much needed snacks to students in the public school district. The snacks that are provided by the program meet the approved snack standards set by the Alberta Health Services. Johnson explained the program. “So in the public schools, every school has a hamper of snacks. They’re for kids who come to school periodically hungry.” The Fort McMurray Airport Authority associate vice president commercial Jesse Meyers explained the Community Investment Program of the organization and talked about the school snack program funding. “Part of that program detail is to contribute towards youth initiatives in the city and within the region and we saw that Wood Buffalo Food Bank’s snack attack program fit that description and more. We’re quite honoured to be the primary sponsor for such an important program in the community.”