Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged a $1 billion investment over five years into a new national school food program amid a rising cost of living crisis and increase in hungry Canadian children.

Trudeau said the investment will ensure children can focus on learning rather than hunger, and that the program will build a “stronger economy.”

The announcement comes days after the NDP called for such a program, leading some to speculate that it was part of the NDP-Liberal’s supply-and-confidence agreement that Trudeau must uphold to protect himself from an early election.

“When it comes to a national food program, which we promised in our 2021 election, we recognize that every province and territory has its ways of delivering food programs to kids, but we also know the need is far greater than anyone is able to meet right now,” Trudeau told reporters on Monday.

The Prime Minister said the federal funding will allow an additional 400,000 poverty-stricken Canadian children to ” have fuller bellies,” on top of the number of hungry children who already get fed through provincial and regional programs that are already in place.

“There are still needs that are unmet. So we look at it as a federal responsibility to step up and try and make sure even more kids have opportunity to have safe healthy food in their in their schools,” he said.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the federal program should start in the fall.

RCMP worried cost-of-living crisis in Canada will cause riots

Just two weeks ago, a secret RCMP report warned of societal unrest in Canada’s future due in part to the cost-of-living crisis.

“The coming period of recession will … accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations,” the report reads.

“For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live,” the report states, adding that Canada’s situation will only “deteriorate further in the next five years.”