The budget aims for a permanent School Food Program. But that doesn't mean free lunches for everyone

At ii compass north Etobicoke schools, well-nigh 80 kids drop-in for breakfast bludgeon from each one morning before the school bell rings. Students might pick up a hot pizza breakfast wrap or a bowl of cereal, with apples, clementines, bananas, yogurt and cheese available, too.

But limited funding is a stumbling block to expand the breakfast program to more schools in this west-end Toronto community, where families often "have tough chocies to make: a roof over their heads or groceries on the table," said Khudaija Sheikh, executive director of Albion Neighbourhood Services.

To bolster current programs, for instance, Sheikh partners with grocers as well as food banks like Second Harvest, while also seeking discounts and donations — all necessary given rising costs for food and staffing.

While she's working with municipal funders, she's yet to see any money directly from the National School Food Program unveiled last year.

With Tuesday's budget, the Liberal government has pledged to make that National School Food Program permanent. Pending legislation, the promise of $216.6 million annually would start in 2029, taking the program beyond $1 billion already pledged for the first five years.

Canadian school food advocates welcomed the budget pledge, yet given the current patchwork of offerings in place across Canada — where some students enjoy full meals, others get snacks and some may have nothing at all — experts say there's much work ahead to bridge the gaps and ensure all kids have a robust, sustainable and healthy food program at school.

"Policy alignment needs to happen so that every school is equitably served by this funding," Sheikh said.

"When a child goes hungry to school, they’re not ready to take on all that’s going to be taught to them."

The federal pledge to make Canada's National School Food Program permanent, with devoted annual funding, is "a really solid foundation from which to build," since provinces, territories and municipalities also provide funds, says Amberley Ruetz, a University of Saskatchewan post-doctoral fellow who researches school food.

That said, the current, overall funding amount isn't enough for the robust offering that many families envision — like a hot lunch accessible every day for all kids who wants one. Based on her analysis of the national U.S. Program, Ruetz estimates something similar would cost approximately $6.50 per student, per school day.

At that rate, given more than 5.6 million elementary and high school students are enrolled in Canada's public and private schools, the annual cost could be in the billions, depending on how many kids opted in.

"Right now about $400 million is coming from the provinces, territories and municipalities combined. I would love to see the federal government match that," Ruetz said from Guelph, Ont.

First among the provinces and territories to sign three-year agreements for a slice of the federal school food funding pie, Newfoundland and Labrador has seen a positive impact, says John Finn, executive director of the School Lunch Association (SLA). The charity has served Newfoundland students hot, nutritious lunches daily through a pay-what-you-can model — emulated by others in Atlantic Canada and in Quebec — for nearly four decades.

When N.L. Signed on to the national program in September 2024, the province's school food programs reached about a third of students.

The first year of federal funding has allowed programs to expand, Finn said, with providers anticipating "reaching approximately half of the 63,000 students [in N.L.] in this current school year."

Having more than doubled SLA's footprint over the past decade to now serve 46 schools across the province, Finn gets excited about feeding more kids.

Yet he cautions that federal investment doesn't mean a free lunch, noting that funding from every level of government and donations, as well as families paying what they can, all play a part in the current system flourishing and growing in a sustainable way, for instance, to reach students in more far flung locations.

Given that some rural schools may have fewer than 10 children attending, different models are required for their food programs to be feasible, successful and relevant to local needs, according to Finn.

"A cookie-cutter approach is really not something that's going to work everywhere. Having said that, the goal would be to have something universal," Finn said. "But these things take time."

Since the pandemic, Chris Peacock has helped nearly 30 schools in Ontario's Simcoe County buy groceries at 50 per cent off. The other half gets subsidized by the Sharing Place Food Centre, the not-for-profit organization he leads in Orillia, Ont.

As times get tough, food prices skyrocket and more families lean on schools for food — "One in three kids right now are food insecure across our region," he said — Peacock sees school orders shift toward "fillers," like granola bars, versus healthy but pricier items.

There can be a disparity between school food programs due to differing capacity, he says, from levels of funding to how many volunteers or staffers are involved to infrastructure — like whether kitchens or appliances are available.

Peacock says he welcomes new federal school food investment, but believes provinces and territories must also step up with funding and take on more responsibility for transforming the current patchwork into optimized systems that efficiently and equitably distribute funding coming in.

He says he wants to see more successes shared, more pilots or trials of these successful models in new locations and a clearly communicated school-food vision from each provincial and territorial government. Ideally, he says, overall initiatives could also support local farmers and food providers.

"Now, there's millions of dollars spread across this province supporting school food in a fractured way, with a bunch of passionate people [like] staff and volunteers that are trying to figure out what's happening," Peacock said.

"We just need these ministries to step up and own it."

Senior Digital Writer

---

---