BILL C-201: A NATIONAL SCHOOL FOOD PROGRAM 

Thanks to a new bill introduced in the House of Commons, elementary and secondary school students across Canada may soon have access to free, healthy meals at school. Bill C-201: An Act to Develop a National School Food Program for Children, had its First Reading - the first of eight steps towards enactment - in the House of Commons in early February. Also known as the ‘School Food Program for Children Act’, the bill seeks to establish a national school food program as a way to combat food insecurity and enhance the development and health of school children in  Canada. 

 Bill C-201 puts pressure on the federal government to make good on its commitment to work towards such a program in its 2019 budget. The budget declared the federal government’s intent to create a national school food program in collaboration with the provinces and territories but did not directly allocate any funds to this project. Currently, Canada is one of the only members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) without an established national school food program. If enacted, the bill states that the Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu, would have to consult with representatives for health and education within the provincial and territorial governments to develop a school food program so that “all children in Canada have access to healthy food”.

The bill was introduced by NDP MP Don Davies, a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA). It stipulates that the national school food program must include ‘evidence-based healthy food education in schools across Canada’ and run at little or no direct cost to children or their families. Instead, costs would be shared between the federal and provincial governments.

If adopted, Bill C-201 would not only combat food insecurity and create a healthy, productive learning environment for children, it would also create hundreds of jobs for workers in the food sector. 

WHY DOES CANADA NEED A NATIONAL SCHOOL FOOD PROGRAM?

It is evident why UNICEF ranked Canada 37th out of 41 high-income countries on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, which is ‘zero hunger’ and entails food security, proper nutrition, and sustainable food production. In total, one and a half million children in Canada are living in food-insecure households, meaning that they don’t have access to enough nutritious or affordable food to meet their needs. According to Food Secure Canada, one-third of elementary school students and two-thirds of secondary school students do not eat a nutritious breakfast before school, hindering their learning capabilities and development. Hunger and undernutrition cause health and developmental problems among children that can follow them for the rest of their lives. Severe hunger is associated with higher reported anxiety and depression among school-aged children, and undernutrition has been tied to poor mental development, both of which contribute to hindering children’s academic success and overall well-being.

A patchwork of school food programs exists across Canada, but no universal school food program has been implemented by provinces or territories. For example, not all school districts in Quebec have school meal programs in place, and even the existing programs primarily rely on charitable donations and parent volunteers to function. In Nunavut, all schools report having some sort of school meal program, but they are not properly funded. The Coalition for Healthy School Food argues that national standards and significant government investment for school food programs are critical for the future of Canadian school children. The national school food program proposed by Bill C-201 could establish both of these things; national standards based on Canada’s Food Guide would ensure that nutritious food is being distributed through these programs, and funding would free them from reliance on volunteers and donors. 

DUAL HEALTH AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS

In 2018, 7.3 million adult Canadians were obese and another 9.9 million were overweight, meaning that 63.1% of adult Canadians were at increased health risk due to excessive weight. Health advocates claim that a national school food program could nip Canada’s obesity problem in the bud by providing children with healthy foods instead of sugary sweets and by setting an example that allows them to go on to make healthy decisions later in life about their food and nutrition. In Japan, such a program is already in place; school lunches are part of Japanese children’s education. The Japanese government has mandated ‘eating education’ to promote conscious eating and relieve the burden of preventable, nutrition-based diseases on the Japanese healthcare system. Japanese students are taught to never skip breakfast, avoid convenience food, and opt for traditional meals over fast food. A national school food program could be a way to improve the future health of Canadians, whilst lowering the burden of avoidable health problems on the Canadian healthcare system, laying the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle early.

Moreover, a national school food program could help revitalize Canada’s economy. In April 2020, Restaurants Canada estimated that 800,000 food service jobs had been lost nationwide due to the pandemic. The Arrell Institute hypothesizes that a national school food program could reemploy thousands of these cooks and food service workers. A 2019 study determined that 62,000 new food service jobs could be created by a national school lunch program in Canada, not to mention other related administrative and coordinator positions. 

Bill C-201 has the potential to change the lives of Canadian farmers as well; the school feeding program in Brazil sources 30% of its ingredients from local family farms. This means that approximately four million small farmers are helped by the feeding program in addition to 42 million Brazilian school children. If a Canadian national school food program had similar local sourcing stipulations, the 193,492 farms across Canada could directly benefit from it. The Canadian Science Policy Centre wrote that implementing a similar model to the Brazilian approach in Canada could contribute an additional $4.8 billion in domestic food purchases by 2029.

WHAT SHOULD THE NATIONAL SCHOOL FOOD PROGRAM LOOK LIKE? 

Many groups have advocated for a national school food program before the emergence of Bill C-201. The Coalition for Healthy School Food, the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, and Food Secure Canada are some Canadian groups who have highlighted the power of such programs to end hunger and create healthy and sustainable food systems.

 Under an adequate national school food program, all schools would serve a healthy meal or snack at little or no cost to students. These programs would also include food education to impart healthy eating habits to students and provide ‘culturally appropriate, local, sustainable food’ as much as possible. A national school food program must also be run by employed workers, breaking apart from reliance on volunteer labour, which has less consistency and hurts program delivery and quality. Moreover, a national school food program will require the creation of a lot of new school infrastructure; many elementary schools lack the kitchens that are necessary for such programs. Large, industrial kitchens are needed in all schools to prepare and serve meals to hundreds, if not thousands, of students. 

The national school food program proposed by Bill C-201 could offer our farmers more domestic business, employ thousands of food service workers hard hit by the pandemic, and support the health and development of our youth. Daniel Germain, the founder of the Breakfast Club of Canada, wrote that “Canadian children deserve a national school food program in order to reach their full potential”.

The full text of Bill C-201’s First Reading in the House of Commons can be found here.