As more families struggle with the high cost of living, more children are going to school hungry.
In Saskatchewan, demand for free lunches delivered by CHEP Good Food Inc. increased from 19,000 a year before the pandemic to 40,000 today, says Gord Androsoff, executive director of the community-run non-profit.
“The demand has doubled because there are many more families struggling as the socio-economic effects linger from the pandemic,” said Androsoff, whose non-profit delivers free meals and fresh food to students in public elementary and high schools.
“We have a massive crisis,” said Debbie Field, co-ordinator for the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which represents 270 non-profits across Canada and advocates for a universal school food program. “Kids are not eating well.”
Food security advocates are hopeful that a federal private member’s bill, Bill C-322, will address the issue. The bill calls for the creation of a national school meal program that ensures all kids in Canada have access to healthy food.
A hungry child cannot learn, says Alan Campbell, president of the Canadian School Board Association, which represents school board trustees across the country.
Families living in poverty are more likely to face hunger and struggle to feed their children. But rising food costs have made it increasingly difficult for all families to pack a healthy lunch, says Field.
Each province and territory is responsible for funding and regulating their own school food program. Since every jurisdiction is free to take their own approach, the quality of schools’ food programs varies greatly across the country, Campbell says.
Saskatchewan has the lowest provincial funding for school meals in Canada, says Field.
Coalition for Healthy School Food’s data shows Saskatchewan funds $6 a year for each student’s food. Next door, Manitoba contributes double that amount.
Saskatchewan funds 40 per cent of CHEP’s budget, with grants and private donations making up the rest. That used to meet the need a decade ago, but not anymore, says Androsoff.
The province’s funding has increased only two per cent a year since the pandemic, while food costs have risen five per cent a year since December 2019, according to Statistics Canada.
“It’s very stressful. I’m looking at our bank account every day,” said Androsoff. “It’s seriously affecting our financial viability.”
If Bill C-322 passes, it would put Canada on par with the rest of the G7 countries. Currently, Canada is the only G7 member without a national school meal program.
“Getting [federal] funding in place to support provinces consistently across the country, and by extension school boards, means that kids can be less likely to start their day hungry,” said Campbell.
Field sees universal accessibility to lower cost, healthier food as key to reducing hunger in schools. Targeted programs for families of lower socioeconomic means often do not work, she says, because kids are embarrassed to use them.
Small cost, large return
A 2023 survey by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab showed 46 per cent of Canadians prioritize cost over nutritional value when grocery shopping. But 63 per cent fear compromising on healthy food will impact their long-term health.
A report by the Arrell Family Foundation supports those fears. Eating healthy food in school can have a long-term effect on a child’s quality of life, the report showed. Children who received universal school lunches increased their lifetime earnings by six per cent due to improved educational outcomes.
“There’s documented proof that these programs pay for themselves in terms of educational and health outcomes down the road,” said Wade Thorhaug, co-executive director of Food Secure Canada, a non-profit that promotes sustainable food programs.
“It is a very small investment for a very large return.”
A subsidized food program would also take pressure off family budgets. The report shows families could save between $129 to $189 a month for each child enrolled in a universal meal program.Â
But some disagree that a national approach is the best way to ensure affordable food in schools.
Conservative MP Lianne Rood criticized the bill for intruding into the province’s power to legislate on matters of education.
Serge Cormier, Liberal MP for Acadie—Bathurst in New Brunswick, who drafted the bill, said a national meal program framework will work with already existing frameworks in provinces and territories, and include their perspective to achieve better programs nation-wide.
Rood also criticized the government’s carbon tax for driving increases in food prices. “[I]f it costs the farmer more to grow food and costs the trucker more to ship food, it is going to cost families more to buy food to feed their children,” she said in the House of Commons.
Most members of the Conservative Party recently voted against the bill going to committee.
“What has been announced is a framework. Kids can’t eat a framework,” Conservative Shadow Minister for Families, Children and Social Development, Michelle Ferreri said in a statement.
Campbell disagrees. “The suggestion that the carbon tax somehow is playing into the inability of hundreds of thousands of Canadian families not being able to provide their children with breakfast… is difficult to understand,” he said.
Field, co-ordinator of the healthy food coalition, says she hopes Ottawa will fast track funding to provinces by including school food funds in the 2024 budget.
“With the affordability crisis, a lot of these programs really need the injection of cash now.”
With the obsession of money these days, probably at an unprecedented level, and the fact that most households now have 2 working parents, I wonder how many kids are going to school “hungry” due to parent laziness ?? That would definitely scew the numbers.
When I grew up, there were a few families that were on what we called at the time, “welfare”. I was friends with some of these children, my age, and as far as I know, the parents did not farm or work at a long term job. However they always had beer and cigarettes, and the kids (my friends at the time) were ridiculed about the hand-me -down clothes they wore, and the food they ate at school. Maybe I was one, but it was never brought to my face. I wore hand-me-down clothes from our city folk cousins and thought all was okay.
Can we stop calling everything a crisis ?? Sometimes in life, you play the hand you are dealt, and do what you gotta do, however, I cannot believe there are that many parents that would let their children go to school “hungry” as has been indicated. We are– all of us –responsible for turning our society into money hungry folk, who would rather complain about how much things cost than doing anything about it. For example: If we could get everyone together for a week—a week— and stop buying beef , or stop driving for a week, or stop drinking alcohol for a week, there is power in numbers. Imagine what could or would happen. We are apathetic Canadians who cannot even agree on the same color of anything.
Thank You for letting me rant