Additional $5 million earmarked for student nutrition programs in Ontario

An additional $5 million will help more than 600,000 school-aged children and youth get healthy meals and snacks throughout the school year in Ontario.

The $5 million brings the total provincial funding for this year to $38 million for the Student Nutrition Program and the First Nations Student Nutrition Program, Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, announced today at Pathway Community Programs in Mississauga.

Nearly 90 million nutritious meals and snacks are delivered to students through the programs.

“Proper nutrition is an important foundation for academic success, and students should have access to healthy and nutritious food to support their growing minds and bodies,” said Parsa.

The $5 million will be split into $4.25 million for the Student Nutrition Program and $750,000 for the First Nations Student Nutrition Program.

Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, said healthy, nutritious food is “not a luxury but a necessity for young persons in Ontario schools.”

The Student Nutrition Program operates in about 4,500 or 70 per cent of provincially funded schools.

The First Nations Student Nutrition Program helps provide children and youth with access to nutritious meals and snacks at 145 sites across 63 First Nations and 27 urban Indigenous communities.

The Student Nutrition Program is delivered in partnership with local agencies, school boards, and community partner organizations, and the First Nations Student Nutrition Program is delivered through a First Nations-led process.

Both programs provide breakfast, snacks or lunch programs to school-aged children to support students’ nutritional needs and promote positive academic outcomes.

The programs also receive funding from municipalities, corporate donations, industry associations, charities and other local fundraising endeavours.

Elissa Smith, program supervision for Six Nations Health Services, thanked the Province of Ontario for the continued support over the last eight years. She said student population has doubled in the Six Nations territory since the program started.

She said the funding will be needed beyond this year.

“Because as we all know, every child does matter,” Smith said.

Parsa also announced the new Healthy Students Brighter Ontario campaign, which province is partnering with the Arrell Family Foundation, the Breakfast Club of Canada, the Schad Foundation, the Grocery Foundation and Student Nutrition Ontario to launch.

This is the first province-wide fundraising partnership of its kind.

To kick off the campaign, the partner organizations have raised $1.67 million from The Arrell Family Foundation, The Schad Foundation, Peter Gilgan Foundation, Maple Leaf Foods and the Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security, The Honourable Margaret McCain, and The Sprott Foundation.

The organizations will continue to work with local groups and businesses to encourage community involvement and fundraise to reach a combined goal of $10 million, which includes the government’s investment.

See the full from the province announcement here.