As the federal government designs the best possible school food program for Canada, they will have to decide on a targeted or universal approach. Here's our recommendation, which you'll also find in the FAQ section of our website. Coalition members believe that a national school food program should be Universal. This means that, where a program is in place, all students in the school would have access to the meal or snack that is offered. There are a variety of reasons why a

On Wednesday October 30, 2019, following the October 21st federal election, the Coalition for Healthy School Food wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ask him to include the development of a School Food Program for Canada in the mandate letters of the next Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister of Health. We also wrote to Jagmeet Singh, Leader of the NDP, Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party and Andrew Sheer, Leader of the Conservative Par

The Coalition for Healthy School Food is excited to share that there is support for school food programs across the different political parties. With an election on Monday we see no slowing down to the #NourishKidsNow momentum that has been growing over the last year! At the Federal level: During this election campaign, we’ve been hearing commitments and support for school food across party lines. Nourishing Canadian students is an issue that everyone can get behind. The NDP

The recording for the October 3rd webinar is available here. The webinar slides are available here. This webinar introduced the Coalition for Healthy School Food and invited participants to get involved in the #NourishKidsNow campaign and reach out to their federal candidates. The Coalition for Healthy School Food is seeking an investment by the federal government in a cost-shared Universal School Food Program that will enable all students in Canada to have access to healthy

The 2019 federal election campaign is officially underway, with voting day just over a month away on October 21, 2019. The Coalition’s #NourishKidsNow campaign, which has been calling on the federal government to make a cost-shared investment in healthy universal school food programs, gained some exciting traction earlier this year. Now, with an election upon us, it’s a great time to keep school food in the conversation. In the spring, an e-petition for a National School Food

Ask any parent or teacher, and they’ll tell you: if you want children and youth to engage with something, it is important to meet them where they are. Nowhere is that axiom more relevant than when it comes to young people and their food. What, where, when, and with whom they eat is important to children—just ask them! UNICEF Canada’s One Youth program takes youth voice seriously. That’s why we’ve developed U-Report, a digital polling platform where we ask young people about t

In June-August 2019, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance invited Canadians to share their input and priorities for the next federal budget — particularly surrounding the theme, Climate Emergency: The Required Transition to a Low Carbon Economy. The Coalition for Healthy School Food took this opportunity to call on the government to invest in the health of our children and the state of our climate through a Healthy School Food Program for Canada. We recommended

It has been an exciting week for the school food movement in Canada! The Coalition for Healthy School Food‘s Petition, which calls upon the Minister of Health to implement an adequately-funded national cost-shared universal healthy school food program, was presented in the House of Commons by MP Julie Dabrusin on Monday, May 6.  Watch the video here. Then on Tuesday, May 7, MP Don Davies introduced a private member’s bill, Bill C-446, ‘An Act to develop a national school food

The Coalition for Healthy School Food invites all supporters of a national school food program to join with us in the next steps of our #NourishKidsNow - Invest in School Food activities. Lots has happened in 2019 so far, and we can look forward to more activity when it comes to building broad public consensus and support across all political parties for the importance of federal involvement in a cost shared universal school food program. January 22 -- Canada’s new food guide

OTTAWA, March 22, 2019. -- The Coalition for Healthy School Food thanks the government for planting the first seed in their 2019 Budget by committing to a National School Food Program! For the first time, Canada will join Japan, Germany, France, Italy, USA, and the UK (the other G7 nations), as well as Brazil, Korea, Sweden, Finland and many other countries who understand the importance of a National School Food Program to the health, education and well being of students. Sc

On Tuesday March 19th, 2019, the federal government's budget announced its intention to work with provinces and territories towards the creation of a National School Food Program. The Coalition for Healthy School Food is thrilled about this development and would like to thank and congratulate the government as well as everyone who has been a part of advocating for federal support for the health of our children and youth in this way! This announcement comes without a budget a

By Japji Anna Bas It’s a really exciting time for food policy in Canada right now. I know, I know, for most of us the words “exciting” and “policy” rarely go together in the same sentence. Nonetheless, it is an exciting time! With the completely revamped Canada’s Food Guide announced in January and the promise of a Food Policy for Canada that is meant to “set a long-term vision” for “health, environmental, social and economic goals related to food” it feels like we are in the

By Debbie Field, Coordinator of the Coalition It was great to hear Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor launch Canada’s new Food Guide at the vibrant all year round farmer-market, Marché Jean-Talon, in Montreal this morning. Congratulations to the Minister and the Federal Government on the new Food Guide. The next step now is for the government to implement a national school food program so that all children access at least one healthy meal a day at school and learn the

Momentum is building for the Canadian government to strengthen the health of all Canadian children and youth by investing in school food programs. Over the last few years, more and more breakfast, mid-morning snack and lunch programs have been started, with increased provincial, parent and community support. At the same time, two important federal initiatives would be strengthened if the Canadian government joined the rest of the G7 countries -- Japan, the United States, the

On November 15 the Honourable Jordan Brown, PEI Minister of Education, Early Learning and Culture, announced that the government would be launching a pilot, cost-shared program to develop "a comprehensive and sustainable school food program that will increase students' food literacy and provide them with food made from scratch using fresh, local, healthy Island products." The program will be supported by government and community partners. The pilot program will be rolling ou

In October 2018 UNICEF Canada released UNICEF Report Card 15: Youth-Friendly Canadian Companion, The Equalizer: How Education Creates Fairness for Children in Canada. The authors polled young people in Canada to seek their perspectives on various issues relating to education. When they asked young people to share their thoughts on school meal programs youth they heard that: Most young people (64%) say their school doesn’t have a meal program. A large number of young people (7

Throughout September and October members of the Coalition for Healthy School Food visited federal pre-budget hearings across Canada to advocate for a federal investment in a National School Food Program. Specifically, Coalition representatives asked the government to invest $360 million in their next budget to join provinces, territories, municipalities, community groups, parents and others in funding a cost-shared program estimated at $1.8 billion. This investment would go

On September 30, 2018, The case for a Canadian national school food program was published in the Canadian Food Studies Journal. As a collaborative effort by a number of Coalition members and supporters, this article presents an overview of national and international evidence, with a focus on promising practices that support the establishment of a national school food program in Canada. The authors then make recommendations for key elements that should be included in a natio

Article written by Parul Verma, a 2018 summerlunch+ Community Food Leader and 3rd year student at Ryerson University's School of Nutrition While many Toronto residents do not have to think about where their next meal is coming from, sadly this is not the case for 1 in 4 families in the city. With 25% of families experiencing unreliable access to appropriate food, Toronto is one of the most food insecure cities in Canada. Food insecurity is more than not having enough to eat,

Each October, Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) collaborates with lead agencies across the country to organize and deliver the annual Farm to School Month Canada campaign. This campaign runs concurrently with the US Farm to School Month campaign, organized by the US National Farm to School Network. Farm to School Month Canada is designed to engage and connect pre-school, school (K-12) and campus communities to showcase the numerous and diverse farm-(and local food)-to-school i