We have written a few pieces noting that our friends in Canada don't have a national school lunch program. Canada is the only G-7 country without a national school lunch program.
The federal budget details will become more clear on April 16. The Trudeau Government has leaked the idea of spending $1 billion over 5 years on a national school food program. The government hopes the program will start delivering meals to students by the fall.
The government target is to provide meals to 400,000 more kids outside of those currently getting food from local school food programs. Plenty of kids are getting school lunch even now; more kids are going hungry.
The debate has been on the radar. We wrote this story in 2017 and the topic wasn't new then either.
Canada has a few unique issues with putting together a national school lunch program. Let's look at them:
-- Education is run by the provinces. Provided school lunches are part of education, Canada would have 10 different provincial setups. Your lunch in Quebec may be way different than lunch in Saskatchewan.
-- Some Canadians are very happy with their current school lunch program. A lot of parents like that their kids come home for lunch.
-- Canada has a lot of rural territory. A program that serves Winnipeg, the largest city to the south, and Churchill, a tiny, far north post, in Manitoba.
-- Some northern programs may currently be geared toward Indigenous students and those parents may worry about federal controls over their local school lunch programs.
Where school lunches funding generally is consistent in European countries, Canada could be vulnerable to school lunch funding cuts when the Conservative Party is in charge. School lunch funding is way more political in the United States, though if Canada develops a federal program, that could be a part of the Canadian political landscape.
Canada does have advantages over the United States, as an example. Canadians are more trusting of government in general. A low bar but still relevant. The prime minister is a former teacher who knows the value of learning when children have full stomachs.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau understands the correlation between full bellies and academic success in the classroom.
Unlike in the United States, the political system in Canada makes passing such legislation a lot easier. The federal Liberal Party government is a minority government; the NDP (definitely) and Bloc Quebecois (likely) would be on board for this legislation. The Canadian Senate may take its sweet time but a bill will eventually get passed into law.
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Argument is getting louder for Canada to have a federal school lunch program (2017)
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Not all of the pushback will be poorly considered. The mantra of "we are feeding kids locally right now" is likely true in many parts of Canada. The idea behind a federal program, even if distributed by the provinces, is to cover more people and set some standards across the board.
I wish I had a better sense of the options Canadian children currently get either through local programs or home options to go back during the school day.
Some of that pushback will be politically oriented. "He's buying votes." "Why is he doing this now 9 years into his government?" As for the former question, you can buy votes with many other topics that aren't school lunch. As for the latter question, Canada's food insecurity may be more of a factor in 2024 than it was in 2015 when Trudeau was first elected.
BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage
BalanceofFood.com Canada food policy coverage
Whenever we first found out about Canada not having a national school lunch program, the first thought was "Maybe Canada doesn't need an actual federal school lunch program." The United States has been a poor example where non-inflationary financial adjustments are rarer than eclipses. There isn't an incentive to do well by school children south of the 49th parallel. Canada will only benefit with a federal school lunch program if the standards are higher, even in provinces run by conservative governments.
video credit and photo credit: CBC News
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