Finance committee  What the coalition has been calling for is that all schools that have a program would provide access to all children in the school. We know, as you say, that this program will not reach all children and youth to start. It is a start. It will allow some programs to scale up from one small snack to a full meal during the day.

Finance committee  Thank you so much. There are so many opportunities to learn from others. We can learn about local procurement. We can learn about the challenges of what happens when you do a stigmatized program and the benefits of universality and making sure that at least each child in a school that receives a program has access to that program.

Finance committee  Thank you. Good morning. On behalf of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, I want to thank you, Mr. Chair and the committee, for inviting me to speak on the Budget Implementation Act. The Coalition for Healthy School Food is made up of more than 300 non-profit member organizations and over 140 endorsing organizations from all provinces and territories.

Health committee  Thank you for your question. I will answer in English. You touched on a couple of points. I'll speak to the infrastructure funding. We have asked for funding for infrastructure because many schools are not built with kitchens or with facilities for growing food. We've said a possible grant or infrastructure funding from other places to support schools could be quite important.

Health committee  As you said, the NDP committed $1 billion over four years and the Liberal government committed $1 billion over five years. In the discussions we've had, folks keep saying they're committed to this issue and are very keen. I wish we had a crystal ball, but we're just fighting hard.

Health committee  We haven't seen the money. We haven't had any firm commitment. As I said, we're speaking to whomever we can and hoping that it can flow soon. Programs really need these funds.

Health committee  Thank you very much. Where do I start? The coalition has eight guiding principles that we've asked a national school food program to follow. A program should be health-promoting, in line with Canada's food guide. It should be universal and accessible to all students. I'm not sure if these are the specific recommendations you're touching on.

Health committee  I can only speak to what I've heard from the members of our coalition. I support the coalition rather than run programs myself. Your question is specifically whether programs are following the food guide. I'll say that it depends on the program. Some have provincial and territorial nutrition guidelines that they follow, and those are slowly being adjusted to match the food guide.

Health committee  I haven't heard anything about liability. I've heard a lot of interest in serving kids whole, healthy foods and trying to do that whenever possible. I think one of the biggest concerns is the lack of funding and how difficult it is sometimes to meet the needs of the food guide with such a tiny budget if there's just 15¢ for a meal or to meet other things.

Health committee  One of our big positions is that children of all socio-economic demographics are not eating well and that all children deserve access to healthy food at school. Many might have a long bus ride if they're in a rural community and travel a long way to school, or their families work long hours and they can't access food, or their families don't have the budget.

Health committee  Yes. Thank you. You talked about good models. The Yukon First Nation Education Directorate has an excellent program that feeds students and also involves local caterers to provide country foods for students. It is quite an extensive program that we do reference often. In Newfoundland and Labrador, their school lunch association has a program that uses a “pay what you can” model.

Health committee  We don't have any specific data. Because we don't have a national program, we also don't have a national databank of exactly who's running the programs. We have 240 member organizations, and most programs are run, from what I've seen, by school districts, and there are some parent communities that come together to run something like a salad bar or a hot lunch program.

Health committee  Thanks for this question. In a way, we have an advantage because we have so many other countries to learn from. There are many countries that really involve the students in preparing and serving the food. Japan and France are great examples that really involve the kids in the whole culture of eating and teach many life skills through that.

Health committee  Our specific request is for schools from K to 12. We have been speaking with some of the folks working on the child care accords regarding food in the child care setting, but that's not a part of our specific request. It's really limited to the elementary and high school settings.

Health committee  No, I don't know the details for day cares. I do know that many day cares do have food.... I think day cares often have a component of food as part of their day care service, but our work is not focused on that.