Make the national school food program a reality
New federal initiative will lay foundation for healthier futures, says
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 are at risk of going to school on an empty stomach. In Alberta, this reality is no different. Until this week, Canada was the only G7 nation without such a national program in place.
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 Alberta's students. According to Dalhousie University's latest Canada's Food Price Report, food prices in Alberta have increased 5.5 per cent in 2023, and 2024 continued that trend. Alberta 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.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2022, nearly 1.8 million children lived in food-insecure households, including 268,000 Albertan children. That 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 that providing nutritious food to students and 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 recent announcement from the federal government, we now have a national school food program to also help our children achieve their full potential.
Last month, Alberta Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides stood proudly in front of the Niitsitapi Learning Centre and announced a $5-million investment to support student nutrition in Alberta to last until the end of this school year. This investment, stretching across four months, is expected to cover nearly 379 school authorities across the province, many with schools currently sitting on wait-lists and needing more support for their school food programs. Because of these recent announcements we are confident that Alberta supports the goal of making sure no child goes to school hungry.
While this may be just a start, the Alberta government is following in the actions of provinces such as British Columbia, who last year dedicated $71 million toward the development of a Feeding Futures program to fulfil the mandate of ensuring youth are properly fed for learning. More recently, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew ran a platform that included the development of a universal school food program and made a $30-million announcement to expand school nutrition programming across the province.
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 Alberta, working with school districts, provincial and municipal governments to deliver the programming Albertans 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 nationwide will undergo profound changes as the school food program begins to be implemented.
Breakfast Club of Canada is looking forward to continuing to work with the provincial government here in Alberta 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.
Its mission is to give children a chance to realize their full potential by starting every day with nutritious food. It currently collaborates with organizations from all sectors to provide nutritious food to over 32,000 students daily in more than 290 schools across Alberta.