Ottawa – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new National School Food Program aimed at providing meals to underserved children in Canada.
With an investment of $1 billion over five years, the program, included in the 2024 federal budget, will launch with a target of providing meals to 400,000 more children every year, beyond those served by existing school food programs.
The program will be a safety net for the kids who need this support the most, the federal government said in a news release. “The lack of access to food disproportionately impacts children from lower-income families and from racialized and Indigenous communities. With this program, we’re getting healthy food on the plates of growing kids.”
This includes investments for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities as well as Self-Governing and Modern Treaty partners, many of whom have some of the highest rates of food insecurity in Canada. Investments will also support capacity building and engagement with Indigenous partners to co-develop culturally appropriate solutions. These partnerships will aim to tackle food insecurity by advancing Indigenous-led solutions and will further our work on reconciliation, the release said.
The new National School Food Program will also help provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners expand their existing school food programs to make sure more children across the country can enjoy healthy meals.
According to the release: “The Program is good for parents and kids, and it’s good for the economy as well. It will help take pressure off of families and invest directly in the future of our kids, while improving children’s health, education, and well-being.”
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