Overview of program:

The provinces and territories, First Nations, Inuit and Métis governments along with school staff are working together to provide children with healthy nutritious lunches that follow Canada’s Food Guide. Statistics showed that over 2.1 million children under 18 did not have access to food for daily meals in Canada. Therefore, this program will help support children’s needs and positively impact their health and growth by providing meals to 400,000 kids every year, on top of any pre-existing school meal programs.

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More info on Canada’s Food Guide and the nutrition levels of each daily meal can be found at https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/.

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Funding:

• The federal government has invested 1 billion dollar over 5 years towards the National Food Program and the National School Food Policy outlines how it plans to reduce food insecurity for children.
• Additionally the bilateral funding agreements with the provinces and territories can be found at https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/school-food/reports/national-policy.html.

How will this program reduce food insecurity within households and school?

• By promoting sustainable meal plans in low income households by involving children in meal preparation at school and saving money on household groceries.
• By increasing available roles in agriculture, food business and local chefs professions.
• By encouraging access to healthy, nutritious affordable foods for children while in school.

Parental support:

Parents agree that this program will allow them to become more flexible, and especially for parents with children in kindergarten, it will allow them to adapt to having their child in school from 9-3pm. Parents also support the program’s ability to build off of what is already implemented yet continue to show innovative results such as the new delivery methods. Parents appreciate the investment the federal government has made on top of what the provinces and territories were working with.

Parents still wish for the National School Food Program to continue: