Accelerating Canada’s school food programming

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/02/2025 (232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the wake of the massive shock from Donald Trump’s recent tariff announcements and his persistent mentions of making Canada the 51st U.S. state, Canadians are scrambling for ways to protect our jobs, communities, businesses, and, indeed, our sovereignty. This may prove to be one of the most critical national conversations in our history.

But in the search for new solutions, we should not overlook credible policies and programs already in place that merit greater support.

In its April 2024 budget, the federal government made good on a prior commitment, allocating $1 billion over five years to fund a National School Food Program.

At an average of $200 million per year, this represents about one-fifth of what provinces, territories, individual parents, and community donors collectively contribute to school food programs, which currently reach about one-third of the public school students in Canada. It’s not enough money to establish universal school food access across Canada, but the federal contribution is a big boost to the survival of current programs and the prospects for their long-term development.

In the nine months since the budget announcement, six jurisdictions have signed agreements to accept federal funds: Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and New Brunswick. With well-established school food networks — including parents, practitioners, teachers, chefs, supply chains, and kitchens — already in place across the country, the new money began to flow as soon as the agreements were signed. Manitoba signed an agreement for $17.2 million over the next three years. This is in addition to the increased investment in school nutrition of $30 million for the 2024-25 school year previously made by the Manitoba government.

It’s likely that the remaining provinces, territories, and Indigenous organizations will all sign agreements with the federal government before the March 31 deadline to access year-one funding. This will place the National School Food Program agreements among the most rapidly implemented federal-provincial agreements in recent memory.

Over the past decade, the case for the health, educational, and social benefits of school food has become increasingly compelling. At the same time, the steep rise in food costs, part of an acute affordability crisis, has made expanding and stabilizing school food programs more urgent — not only for all the kids who rely on a daily healthy school meal, but also as a small but important contribution to the food security of families and communities.

With the looming threat of massive U.S. tariffs on virtually all Canadian exports, and the prospect of retaliatory tariffs on agricultural and consumer products, Canadians could soon see yet another surge in food prices, including a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables imported from the U.S. This threat underscores another important benefit of locally based school food programs: their role in strengthening local and regional food sources and supply chains, making communities more resilient to global market disruptions.

In those schools and communities where school food programs are relatively robust and well-funded, they are already having a significant impact on the local economy — boosting demand for locally supplied produce and other agricultural products while creating jobs for suppliers, chefs, and food service workers.

“At the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba, we encourage schools to support local retailers, suppliers and producers,” said Wendy Bloomfield, board chairperson, Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba. “From our long experience of working with schools, we know that these critical community partnerships are mutually beneficial for the thousands of Manitoba students participating each day and the communities in which they live, and they provide opportunities for learning about local food production.”

As the number and comprehensiveness of school food programs continues to grow, they will have a significant economic impact, even in small communities. These programs can encourage the establishment, re-establishment, and growth of local and regional supply hubs, making the appeal to “Buy Local” not only desirable but feasible for an increasingly large group of consumers.

As all levels of governments, businesses, and communities across Canada scramble for effective responses to the looming threat of economic chaos, the potential of school food programming must not be overlooked.

Regardless of the timing of the next federal election or the political makeup of the future government, MPs and their parties must unite in recognizing the urgent need to sustain and expand school food from coast to coast to coast.

Debbie Field is the national co-ordinator of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, Canada’s largest school food network.