Feds Invest $39.4 million to Boost BC School Food Program

Thanks to a new deal between B.C. and Canada, all provincial grade-school students will soon have better access to free breakfast and lunch.

Last Friday, federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jenna Sudds held a joint announcement in the cafeteria of Vancouver’s David Thompson Secondary School with B.C. Education and Child Care Minister Lisa Beare and Vancouver South MP Harjit Sajjan.

Sudds said B.C. has just become the 10th province or territory to sign on to the National School Food Program.

The three-year agreement adds $39.4 million from the federal government, spread over three years, to the $214 million the province put into B.C.’s Feeding Futures school food program over three years starting in 2023.

The federal investment means another 90,000 students will receive access to healthy breakfast and lunch programs at their schools, Sudds told the gathered media, educators, politicians and trustees.

“It will give students the opportunity to have a full belly and really reach their full potential,” she said.

Approximately 90 per cent of the province’s kindergarten to Grade 12 schools have the funding to offer students free breakfast, lunch and snacks, Beare said.

“And we get to expand that, with this federal investment,” she said.

Beare added that all students, regardless of household income, have access to free food. “No kid should learn on an empty stomach,” she said.

The National School Food Program was a 2021 election pledge from the federal Liberals. Since it was announced in the 2024 budget, an additional 300,000 students across the country have been getting fed at schools, Sudds said.

“If you give parents the chance and opportunity to raise their kids with more resources, the kids have a better future,” said Sajjan.

In addition to being the minister of emergency preparedness, Sajjan is a former Vancouver Police Department officer who attended David Thompson Secondary until transferring out in Grade 9.

“It was heartbreaking to see when I was growing up, and especially as a police officer, when both parents are working and don’t have enough,” Sajjan said. “Especially when it comes to feeding their children.”

Feeding kids with local agriculture

Both Sudds and Beare addressed U.S. trade tariffs, saying their respective governments will do their best to shield families and schools from economic hits.

“We want to see an expansion of how we support B.C. agriculture, B.C. farmers, B.C. workers” through the Feeding Futures program, Beare said.

“I will be working with school boards to make sure we can do everything possible to make sure these programs source local food.”

Sudds said that approach is in line with the National School Food Program’s goals.

“At no time like the present is that more important,” Sudds said, adding the program supports parents, students and local economies at the same time.

The announcement was preceded by a media tour of David Thompson Secondary’s cafeteria kitchen, where students in the high school’s culinary arts class were joined by the politicians to prepare that day’s school lunch.

The program, taught by a teacher, a Red Seal chef and a Red Seal baker, uses food from a garden on school property run by urban farm organization Fresh Roots.

“Food literacy is a longtime skill that will continue to benefit students after they graduate,” said Nick Ante Akrap, principal of David Thompson Secondary.

While the aim is to have a free food program at every school in B.C., not every school has a cafeteria or culinary arts program to prepare the breakfast and lunches. This makes David Thompson Secondary a standout.

Sudds calls out Pierre Poilievre for lack of support

Feeding Futures, now with federal funding help, is expected to help families with two kids save an average of $800 on their annual grocery bills.

But with just $1 billion promised for the National School Food Program, spread out over five years and almost all the provinces and territories, Sudds acknowledged feeding every hungry school-aged child in Canada “is going to take time.”

“I certainly acknowledge there is a lot of need out there,” she said, adding that universality and no-barrier access, as well as championing local food procurement, were part of the policy from the beginning.

“I’m really proud of the progress we’re making. But I will acknowledge that we can’t take our foot off the gas.”

Having a school food program means “one less thing to worry about” for parents and for the students themselves.

“They can just be a kid. They shouldn’t have to worry about where their next meal will come from. And a program like this helps to alleviate that.”

However, school is only 10 months of the year, meaning the meals will run out in the summer months for most provinces and territories that have signed on to the program. Prince Edward Island has established a food program that extends into the summer months with its provincial funding.

The 2024 B.C. Child Poverty Report Card found that 16.7 per cent — or one in six — of kids in the province live below the poverty line. It’s even higher for First Nations kids living on reserves and for lone-parent families. The national child poverty rate is 18.1 per cent.

Another potential drawback of the Liberals’ recent progress on programs including the National School Food Program, $10-a-day child care and the Canada Child Benefit is that the programs could be cancelled by a newly elected non-Liberal government once current funding agreements run out, Sudds said.

Sudds singled out the Conservatives and leader Pierre Poilievre for criticism.

In December 2023 the Conservatives voted against a private member’s bill to establish a framework for the program, telling media the government should focus on reducing the cost of food for everyone.

“Pierre Poilievre doesn’t believe in this program. Him and his caucus have voted against it at every opportunity,” Sudds said.

“I struggle to get my head around it, because it is unreal to me to think that feeding children is in any way a political issue. But they have certainly made it one, and I think it’s important for mums and dads to know that.”