(Ottawa) The Breakfast Club is getting impatient. Food price inflation makes establishing a national nutritious school meals program even more relevant. The Liberals promised it in the 2021 election campaign, but the billion has not been budgeted since then. The Bloc Québécois is calling on the government to keep its commitment.
Posted at 5:00 am.
“The threads of the stock market are very, very difficult to untie,” notes Breakfast Club co-founder Judith Barry. We understand the context, but it is precisely this famous context that justifies the need to invest in such a policy at this time. »
The organization participated in a consultation launched by the Ministry of Employment and Social Development in 2022 to develop a national school nutrition policy. He expected that the last federal budget would allocate money to introduce such a program, but was disappointed.
The Breakfast Club points out that Canada remains the only G7 country that does not have a school nutrition program.
Bloc Québécois MP Sylvie Bérubé sent a letter to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday to remind her of that commitment. “From my conversations with these organizations, they are categorical: the billion you promised over five years must be paid out,” she wrote. It’s a necessity. »
She is asking that the funds be forwarded to Quebec and the other provinces so they can allocate them to organizations fighting food insecurity.
“It is certain that there are obligations that must be prioritized and I think that this is a priority for the future of our children,” says the member of Abitibi – Baie-James – Nunavik – Eeyou in the interview.
Although the increase in food prices declined in August, it remains high at 6.9%. According to Statistics Canada, they had already increased by 9.8% in 2022.
Recent estimates suggest that in 2022, 1.8 million children in Canada lived in families that struggled to afford the food they needed. That’s every fourth child. An increase compared to last year, when 1.4 million people did not have enough to eat. These data were calculated by researchers from PROOF, a program run by the University of Toronto that aims to propose public policies to reduce food insecurity.
The 2023 federal budget included an entire chapter of measures to make living affordable, but nothing to address food insecurity in schools. “It is a long-term investment that is intended to be much more effective than certain other measures currently being taken to reduce the financial burden on families related to food costs,” said Ms Barry, referring to the meeting of ministers for Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, with the five major food chains. He asked them to provide him with a plan to stabilize their prices by Thanksgiving.
Minister Chrystia Freeland did not respond to questions from La Presse, but her press secretary instead referred them to the office of Minister for Families, Children and Social Development Jenna Sudds. “After a series of multi-stakeholder consultations, the introduction of a national school nutrition policy has received strong support,” said its press secretary Soraya Lemur. She added that the consultation report would be published in the coming weeks, without specifying whether the government intended to follow through on its promise.
In the 2019 budget, the federal government committed to creating Canada’s first food policy. He promised to provide 134.4 million over five years from 2019 to 2020 and 5.2 million annually thereafter. Then in the 2021 election campaign, the Liberals returned to the charge by pledging $1 billion over five years for a national nutritious meals program and launching a consultation in 2022 that resulted in no concrete policy.
Food insecurity in schools has made headlines in recent weeks. In Quebec, a coalition that includes the Breakfast Club is pushing for a universal food program. Founded in 1994 on Montreal’s south shore, the organization expanded across the country in 2005 and now supports more than 3,000 programs from coast to coast.
A study published in August by the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS) estimated the cost of a free daily meal for all students in the public network at 1.7 billion per year. The National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion on September 13 aimed at eliminating food insecurity in schools.
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13.6 million Amount allocated by the Government of Quebec for food assistance in the school network in 2023-2024
Quebec Ministry of Education