Why Does School Food Matter?
Ensuring that all of our school children are well nourished is foundational to wellbeing in our community. Ample evidence links nutritious school meals with improved physical and mental health among students as well as improved learning and behavioural outcomes.
Canada remains one of the few industrialized countries without a national school food program. Canada was also recently ranked 37th out of 41 countries when it comes to providing healthy food for kids. Only about one-third of children between the ages of four and 13 years eat five or more servings of vegetables and fruit daily. And about one-quarter of children's calorie intakes are from food products not recommended in Canada's Food Guide.
BUT! Research from northern Ontario and British Columbia found that students who participated in a school food program reported higher intakes of fruits and vegetables and lower intakes of “other” (i.e., non-nutritious) foods. Students who participate in school food programs consume more fibre and micronutrients, and consume less saturated and trans fat, sodium and added sugars.
Rapidly increasing cost-of living is affecting us all, and more and more families are facing food insecurity. In our school district, 1 in 4 families struggle to meet their food needs. Universally available school food programs support families by providing nourishing food options within the school environment.
School Food programs provide exposure to a variety of foods and the opportunity for kids to explore food they may not taste at home in a supportive environment where they are sharing the meal with their peers.
“If we could provide food for all students this would be the best way of incorporating nutritional education in our curriculum. Seeing the growth in food and choices students are making about what to eat and try has been excellent since we started the lunch program with Flourish. It would mean healthier adults making healthier choices.”
~ Principal from an Elementary School participating in the Flourish School Food Program
Why Does Local Food in Schools Matter?
In fact, the effect is so notable that studies have been done at the provincial level by Feed BC to quantify the impacts on provincial GDP, job creation and wages if schools and health services were to increase their local food purchasing. The results have led to a federal and provincial funding directive to support schools in developing healthy school food programs with an emphasis on local procurement.
In our community, establishing consistent winter sales channels for local produce really benefits local farmers. Just in the pilot phase of our school food programs, we have seen 3 producers expand and adapt their production to meet the school food program needs. This is a big win for our local food supply!
In BC more than 70% of fruits and vegetables are imported, and mostly from the US where droughts, wildfires and tariff turmoil has exposed the vulnerabilities of our conventional food supply. Remember in 2021 when floods in the lower mainland and mudslides on the Coquihalla blocked our food supply from the Vancouver Port? Grocery store shelves were empty for days and it took months for conventional supply chains to catch up. As extreme weather events and volatile geopolitical circumstances become the norm, establishing a robust local and regional food supply is critical to the resilience of our community food system. Developing institutional partnerships - like with the local school district - allows for the establishment of valuable distribution pathways for local food that supports the scaling up of our local food supply to better meet community needs.
And back in the classrooms, students who are munching on carrot sticks from a local farm are learning the connection between food and place, the joy of snacking on fresh garden produce, and are developing a fluency around seasonal, local eating. Food literacy fundamentals.
Where our food comes from and how our food dollars are spent has a significant impact on community economic development and food system resilience. Every dollar spent on locally produced food stays within our community supporting local businesses & families.
Why is Local Food Matters Involved in School Food?
Schools themselves are actually often challenged to manage food programs. Staff and budgets are stretched and food programming mostly falls either out of scope of existing staff roles or is tagged onto a workload and becoming a ‘competing priority’. Some of the most successful school food programs are actually community based partnerships in which a third-party organization takes on the coordination and administration of the program. This is what we have done with Rocky Mountain School District #6 to pilot the Local Harvest Breakfast Program. The District has allocated federal school food funds to provide grab-and-go breakfast items made with local ingredients to Golden’s three3 elementary schools one day per week. LFM has partnered with Ethos Cafe to provide those meals and is coordinating the delivery and logistics of the program.
In these elementary schools, the Parent Advisory Committees also organize a once-weekly hot lunch program in which parents sign their kids up to receive items purchased from local chefs and restaurants once per week. These programs are volunteer run by parents and, historically, the schools have provided subsidies to families who may find cost a barrier to participation. When the PAC at Alexander Park was looking for a new parent volunteer to take on this role, Local Food Matters offered our grant-funded administrative and coordination services to help incorporate nutritious and local foods into the program. This is a new and developing relationship between our organization and the Parent Advisory Committee as we navigate the many dynamics of school food culture and nutrition, food preferences and accessibility.