N.S. schools rapidly chewing though food budgets

Canada the only G7 country without a School Food Program

At Province House earlier this month, principal Joy King had a few precious minutes to describe to MLAs her reality at Uniacke District School. “We know if we fuel their little bodies, their minds are going to grow,” said King, who has spent as much on food in the last three-month period as she did for all of the last school year.

As the outgoing executive director at Nourish Nova Scotia, which was formed in 2013 to support healthy food environments for children and youth across this province, I rejoiced at King’s description of her breakfast program — which 90 per cent of students take part in — and of the lunch program prepared by a community partner for students who pay $4.75 and for those who cannot. (The school food budget stretches to cover those costs, somehow.)

Having surveyed our contacts in schools and regional centres of education in advance of my own few minutes in front of MLAs, I am concerned. We heard that schools are running out of their food budgets earlier in the year for three main reasons: the cost of food has increased significantly; the number of students accessing the program has increased exponentially; and, the pandemic caused a shift in how breakfast programs are delivered — featuring more costly pre-packaged items — and because of convenience and other factors, many programs have not shifted back.

SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS

The impacts are significant: children are still going hungry at school, as programs may run fewer days per week, or end earlier in the year; the variety of foods offered has decreased — especially fresh foods like vegetables and fruits; and, in addition to breakfast, the need for a lunch program has grown in urgency, but many schools don’t have the resources and leadership to take that on.

School food programs have never been fully funded, and they rely on both volunteers and fundraising. Nourish Nova Scotia facilitates the farm-to-school fundraiser Nourish Your Roots to help, but that has also been affected by farmers’ rising costs of production and delivery. This year, our boxes will be more expensive, no doubt impacting the number of boxes sold and ultimately how much schools raise to sustain their school food programs.

Canada is the only G7 country without a School Food Program. Nourish Nova Scotia joined with others in 2017 to urge voters to “Speak Up for School Food” and to form a Coalition for Healthy School Food. Last December, the federal government committed to developing such a program, but there were no dollars for it in April’s budget.

HUNGRY CHILDREN

Children come to school hungry for many reasons. We are all struggling — and somewhat shocked — at the inflation of food prices, which, at 10 per cent, is higher than overall inflation. Households with children are more likely to experience food insecurity (19.2 per cent) than households overall (14.6 per cent — a stat that worsened from 10.5 per cent pre-pandemic). Many families are also starved for time, and a robust school food program would spare parents a part of the frenzied morning panic.

A well-resourced school food program is also an opportunity — an opportunity to support the local economy and the environment. The return on investment for school food is an impressive $3 to $10 for every $1 in investment and, when designed with sustainability in mind, can also support local food producers, shorten food supply chains, and provide opportunities to students to learn about both food systems and food literacy.

For Principal Joy King, her 475 students, and all students, educators and those who care about them across Nova Scotia, a well-funded School Food Program can’t come soon enough. Nourish Nova Scotia is here to help. Margo Riebe-Butt, a registered dietitian, will depart as executive director of Nourish Nova Scotia later this month. Currently, parents can purchase a thank-you to teachers at Nourish’s website, the proceeds of which also support school food.