Changing lives with food

Opinion

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This article was published 10/04/2024 (517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A billion dollars over five years — and that’s no April Fool’s joke.

On April 1, the federal government committed a billion dollars in its forthcoming budget to implementing a national school food program, a long-standing promise of the Liberal government. That’s because one in three children across the country is at risk of going to school on an empty stomach. In Manitoba, this reality is no different. Until this week, Canada was the only G7 nation without such a national program.

While the rate of inflation may be trending down, the cost of groceries has increased substantially over the past few years, exacerbating the problem of hunger and nutrition for Manitoba students.

According to Dalhousie University’s latest Canada’s Food Price Report, food prices in Manitoba have increased 5.7 per cent in 2023, and in 2024, that trend is expected to continue.

Manitoba families cannot escape these pressures on their paycheques, and, unfortunately, thousands of children, who are often among those affected, bear the brunt of this affordability crisis.

Statistics Canada reported that, in 2022, nearly 1.8 million children lived in food-insecure households, including 76,000 children in Manitoba.

The former figure accounts for nearly 18 per cent of the homes across Canada. Low-income households are at the greatest risk, but 80 per cent — the overwhelming majority of Canadians struggling to put food on the table — live above the poverty line.

We know providing nutritious food to students by implementing school meal programs is one of the most effective ways to achieve significant health and education outcomes for children, and finally, because of the announcement from the federal government, we now have a national school food program to also help our children achieve their full potential.

In January, Premier Wab Kinew stood proudly alongside Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Nello Altomare and announced a platform that included the development of a universal school food program with a $30-million investment to expand school nutrition across the province.

Half of this $30-million announcement will go to school districts, and $9 million will be spent on grant-based initiatives across Manitoba communities, many with schools currently on wait lists and needing more support for their school food programs.

Because of these recent announcements, we are confident Manitoba supports the goal of making sure no child goes to school hungry.

Now, our federal government, having floated the idea for years, has made history by committing to feeding hungry students, and now, it is time for concerted action.

The funding is essential, but it will take political will to establish a framework, and countless hours to distribute food to children in our schools across Manitoba, working with school districts and provincial and municipal governments to deliver the programming Manitobans need.

While many Canadians are facing so many challenges, a national school food program brings a sigh of relief to many families across the nation, families who have different needs, cultural backgrounds, ethnographic, social and demographic realities.

As the programming rolls out and funding is distributed to the provinces, school food programs must account for rural, urban, social and cultural differences. This program should be flexible enough to recognize the experience and knowledge of provincial governments that already deliver school food programs.

This historic billion-dollar commitment over five years to implement a national school food program is just the tip of the iceberg.

The landscape of our country and the well-being of children will undergo profound changes as the school food programs begin to be implemented. Breakfast Club of Canada looks forward to continuing to work with the Manitoba government to feed children, together.

The importance of swift action cannot be overstated; the earlier agreements can be made, the sooner more children have access to nutritious meals at school, laying the foundation for healthier futures.

Judith Barry co-founded Breakfast Club of Canada in 1994. Breakfast Club of Canada collaborates with organizations from all sectors to provide nutritious food to 18,000 students daily in more than 85 schools across Manitoba.