Nova Scotia folk singer Dave Gunning is shown in a handout photo. Gunning is lending his name to a drive to raise funds for a program that provides food to rural children in need of healthy food. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Dave Gunning **MANDATORY CREDIT**
HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia folk singer is lending his name to a program that provides healthy food to rural schoolchildren in the province.
Dave Gunning’s music has included tunes such “Coal From the Train,” with lyrics telling how his grandfather would shovel coal from his passing train onto the properties of people struggling to heat their homes in Pictou County.
Now, the Pictou County resident is becoming the artistic sponsor of a drive to set up centres that will stock rural schools in Nova Scotia with nourishing food and other necessities for students.
The Rural Communities Foundation of Nova Scotia, which operates the program, says child poverty in the province is most acute in rural areas.
Statistics Canada data published in 2020 says the child poverty rate was 26 per cent in Annapolis county, 27 per cent in Digby county and 22 per cent in Cape Breton’s Victoria county.
Gunning says he started to appreciate the problem when his school teacher wife told him about children lacking healthy lunches at her Pictou County school.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2023.
