On October 1, Neil Hetherington, CEO and Sahar Raza, Vice President of Research & Advocacy at Daily Bread Food Bank, joined Mayor Olivia Chow in announcing her historic commitment to a universal Student Nutrition Program, or school meal program. This expansion of the Student Nutrition Program will go a long way in supporting children facing hunger and will ensure that students across the city get the support they need to learn, grow, and thrive.
While the program has existed for years and now serves over 227,000 meals per day to kids across our city, there are still major gaps. Over 100,000 children across more than 220 public schools do not have access to good food—and we know that students being left behind are disproportionately low-income, racialized, newcomer, or disabled.
Mayor Chow and the Executive Committee have made a commitment to begin flowing municipal funds to this program as early as January 2025 for 8,000 students at 21 schools across Toronto.
Many of our Daily Bread clients are affected by the lack of free meal programs in their schools, and are forced to make difficult decisions with their already limited resources. Clients have shared stories about doing everything they can to ensure their children are fed throughout the school day, leaving parents and guardians to go hungry and face health challenges—which in turn has proven mental health consequences for their children.
In Toronto, more than 1 in 10 people now rely on food banks to survive, and one-quarter of food banks clients are children and youth. There are also many Torontonians facing food insecurity but not making it to the doors of food banks, which we know is the case for many single parents who face time and resource barriers to accessing emergency food services.
We applaud the City for its commitment to pursuing a fully funded and universal Student Nutrition Program. It could go a long way in creating a more equitable city and improving not only food insecurity, but mental and physical health among families with children who are struggling to secure their basic right to food.
Daily Bread is now working to ensure that the provincial and federal governments match municipal funding and immediately flow funds already promised to Toronto to support a full expansion of the program, so that all children have access to healthy and adequate meals at school.
You can learn more about the City’s exciting new commitment here.
Photo courtesy of the office of Mayor Olivia Chow
