Achi news desk-
The federal Liberal government is finally making good on a year-old election campaign promise, committing on Monday to allocate $1 billion over five years to fund a new national school food program.
The funding, to be included in the upcoming April 16 budget, will launch with the goal of expanding existing school meal programs, providing meals to an additional 400,000 Canadian children a year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, made the announcement in Scarborough, Ont., with the support of cabinet and caucus members as part of their latest pre-budget press tour.
Pledging to work with states, territories, and Indigenous partners on implementation – as he has with other recent pre-budget pledges – Trudeau framed this funding as a safety net for children and families facing uncertainty food.
“Tomorrow, children will go back to school, and some of them will not have enough to eat. That affects their health and their opportunities to learn and grow,” the prime minister said, noting that the cost of groceries is likely to be a topic of conversation at many family gatherings over the long weekend.
“We have recognized that each province and territory has its own ways of delivering food programs for children, but we also know that the need is far greater than anyone can meet at this time,” Trudeau said, noting some recent progress has been made in Nova Scotia and Manitoba.
“These are choices we make as a government because we know that making sure that young people here get the best start in life… is how you build equity for every generation. “
‘A very, very long time coming’
Taking part in the announcement, East Scarborough Boys & Girls Club CEO Utcha Sawyers welcomed the funding, but called the news “a very, very long time coming.”
During the 2021 election campaign, the federal government promised to “develop a National School Food Policy and work towards a national program of nutritious school meals with an investment of $1 billion over five years.”
After the promise was mentioned in the 2022 federal budget with no funding attached, and left out again in 2023, advocates warned that the future of schools’ ability to continue offering meals to students was at stake due to an influx of students who n accessing school food programmes, and increasing food costs without a proportionate increase in program funding.
Citing food price inflation and studies indicating Canadians are changing their eating habits as a result of these economic pressures, advocates told CTV News at the time that a national school meal program is more needed now than when the promise was made to start
School meal programs that offer hungry students something to eat already exist in various forms in every state and territory, although federal statistics say they only reach about 21 percent of school-age children .
These programs are made possible primarily through provincial and territorial government funding — which advocates have said also needs a significant increase given the effects of inflation — as well as donations from the private and community sectors, and volunteer time.
The government has already held consultations meant to help guide a policy framework around expanding Canada’s school food programs, and Freeland said she wants to see this school food funding introduced, “as early as the 2024-2025 school year . “
In a statement, the Breakfast Club of Canada said the Liberals’ commitment to funding this program “marks a turning point in the country’s commitment to the well-being of every child as 1 in 3 are at risk of going to school on an empty stomach. “
As an organization that currently reaches 420,000 children across 3,000 programs, the Breakfast Club of Canada promises to work with the different levels of government on implementation.
“These programs can improve children’s learning and mental health and reduce their risk of developing chronic disease,” Heart and Stroke Foundation CEO Doug Roth said in a statement.
Political pressure around the promise
Earlier on Monday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh held a press conference calling on the Liberals to make good on this promise.
Although it is not a measure included in their bipartisan supply and confidence agreement, Singh has been pushing for this funding to be included in the budget, noting that Canada is lagging behind countries others of the G7 in terms of implementing a national program for school meals.
“If you’re hungry, it’s hard to focus on anything else… There are so many families struggling with food security. That means children get hungry, and when children are hungry, they can’t focus on school. They can’t focus on having fun, they can’t focus on being a kid, and it shouldn’t happen,” Singh said.
“We need stable funding from the federal government to ensure that every child who goes to school in our country, no matter where they live, no matter what school they go to, gets nutritious.”
Since late last year, NDP and Liberal MPs have been trying to use the prospect of a school meal program as a wedge, calling on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party to vote against a private member’s bill that seeks to promote a school food framework national school food program while denying how “Canadians are hungry.”
The Conservatives have said that they have rejected the bill because it has no money attached, noting at the time that hungry families could not eat a framework.
When asked if he supports the plan for the Liberal program given his concerns about food insecurity, Poilievre called it a failure of the Trudeau government that one in four school children go without enough food.
“I find it ironic that he’s promising a federal food bureaucracy in Ottawa the same day he’s raising taxes on food,” Poilievre said Monday in Nanaimo, B.C., referring to the increase scheduled for April 1 to the carbon price. His plan instead would be to “lower the cost of food for everyone” by scrapping the carbon tax.
In a statement responding to Monday’s news, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Health Science and Law, Bill Jeffery, said parties of various political stripes have implemented types of subsidized food programs over the years.
He called on Canadian politicians to promote policies that improve the lives of children, “not to treat children as podiums for attacking political opponents.”
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