Brant Food For Thought, the lead charitable organization that supports and facilitates Universal Student Nutrition Programs in Brantford and Brant, acknowledged the provincial government for negotiating a national school food program agreement with Canada.
Ontario will receive $108.5 million over three years from the federal government to support the Ontario Student Nutrition Program and First Nations Student Nutrition Program, supporting an additional 160,000 students with over 9.8 million meals.
This agreement comes at an important time for Ontario student nutrition programs, which have been under significant strain due to increased food costs and growing demand for programs in recent years. This deal shows Ontario’s commitment to strengthening the provincial student nutrition program, which provides food in schools and supports students and families across the province.
“This investment is critical to the sustainability of school-based nutrition programs in our region, who, due to our growing population, continue to grapple with increasing school enrolments, increased demand in program size and frequency, higher than ever food costs and tight budgets to ensure that every student in their program has equitable access to the most nutritious foods possible,” explained Gisèle Budgell, Program Director for Brant Food For Thought. “We currently support over 12,000 students weekly and are projecting to serve an estimated 1.35 million breakfasts and healthy snacks this school year alone. There are more than 25,000 school-aged children and youth in this area, therefore room to expand and deliver even more high-quality nutrition programs. We are extremely grateful to the Province of Ontario for seeing the value in investing in the academic success of our children and youth through student nutrition programs.”
This additional investment will add to existing community and provincial funding, making it so that more programs will be able to run at full capacity, five days per week, with sufficient health-promoting food to support the hundreds of thousands of children and youth who access them each day.
“Ontario Student Nutrition Programs have already made a profound impact on children’s health and academic success, and the announcement of federal funding will amplify those efforts”, said Tyler Arsenault, co-chair of Student Nutrition Ontario and Manager of Haldimand-Norfolk R.E.A.C.H. “By progressing toward stable, sustainable funding, schools will be able to reach even more students and provide access to food more frequently throughout the school year. This is a victory for students, families, and communities across Ontario, and we look forward to the positive outcomes this program will bring.”
“We’re thrilled that Ontario is now the third province to sign a federal agreement”, added Sarah Keyes, Provincial Lead for the Ontario Coalition Chapter. “Ontario has a real opportunity to build on this federal investment and we are looking forward to seeing continued leadership from the province on school food. Federal funding means programs in Ontario will be able to begin to stabilize, and with more funding programs will be able to grow. This will help families cope with the cost of living and will improve children’s lives, which is one reason we’ve seen so many other provinces across the country investing in school food.”
Universal, stigma-free school food programs reduce children’s hunger during school hours while improving their diets across socio-economic backgrounds. This results in short-term benefits of improved learning, behaviour, and health and well-being, and supports students in the long-term as well. These programs also help level the playing field and give all students a more equal opportunity to succeed.
“School food programs are also excellent social and economic policy, with a great return on investment,” Keyes said. “They have been shown to help strengthen communities, support the economy, and transform food systems. These are important outcomes that Ontario will benefit from as the provincial program grows.”
