Mr. Chair, in October, I ran 200 laps—over 92 kilometres—around my elementary school to raise awareness for the need for federal investment in school food, calling on the Government of Canada to invest the $200 million for five years they committed towards a national school food program. Then in November, five weeks later, I ran 200 laps, nearly 30 kilometres, around the lawn of Parliament to once again draw attention to the issue.

It is a real honour to be invited here today. I would like to express my strong support for Bill C-322, which is even more important now than it was when it was first tabled in March 2023 because of the federal government's recent investment of $1 billion over five years in budget 2024.

Bill C-322 would provide a necessary framework for how the federal government can work in partnership with the provinces, territories and indigenous communities to ensure the health and well-being of all Canadian children.

I urge you to support this bill for the sake of Canada's children as well as school communities and the local food economies that would benefit. I know that supporting school food is a non-partisan issue and one that everyone in a school, neighbourhood and community can get behind.

I am an elementary school teacher at a diverse urban elementary school on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples in what is now known as the west end of Vancouver.

As a teacher, I co-founded LunchLAB, an educational lunch program that empowers grades 6 and 7 students to work with the chef in residence to prepare foods for themselves and their peers. LunchLAB makes lunch an important part of the school day for learning, rather than seeing it as an interruption.

I see the power of school programs as a teacher, which gives me the conviction and drive to advocate for all students to be able to benefit. Every week, I see up close how a school food program supports all students to thrive and learn. LunchLAB demonstrates how school food programs can support students to learn food skills, develop food literacy and improve the quality of what they happily eat at school. School food programs are indeed a social equalizer. I can see this clearly when students from diverse backgrounds sit down and share a meal.

As a passionate school food advocate, I've worked closely with the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which includes nearly 450 member organizations and endorsers in every province and territory.

I had the opportunity to be part of the founding meetings of the coalition in Halifax in 2014. Several years later, I was part of the formation of the B.C. chapter of the coalition which, through years of collective advocacy, contributed to the B.C. government investing $214 million over three years in school food programs.

The coalition has been advocating for the development of a universal healthy school food program that is cost-shared with provinces and territories, following key guiding principles based on research and best practices to ensure that school food programs live up to their full potential. These guiding principles are what unites this vast network from coast to coast, which includes non-profit school food providers, national health education and indigenous organizations, school boards, cities, municipal health boards and many others. The guiding principles are outlined in the brief submitted by the Coalition for Healthy School Food, and I encourage you to review that.

We need a national framework that is visionary and reflects the broad guiding principles laid out by the coalition and those reflected in the “What We Heard” report from the national school food policy engagements.

I was pleased to see that Bill C-322 includes ensuring that programs are in line with Canada's food guide. The food guide says that healthy eating is more than the foods we eat, which includes focusing on mindful eating, enjoying food, cooking more often and sharing meals together. School food programs are an opportunity to foster a healthy food environment and promote mental health and well-being.

In terms of the rights and priorities of Canada's indigenous peoples, indigenous communities must play key roles in designing and implementing school food programs in their communities as well as other locations where first nations, Métis or Inuit children comprise a significant portion of the student population.

In terms of fostering local and sustainable food systems, encouraging school food programs to set local and sustainably produced food purchasing targets would create jobs for Canadian farmers and support community economic development.

As a teacher, I stress the importance of promoting food education to support new school food programs to be integrated into the curriculum and to enable food literacy and experiential food skills education. Programs aren't just for students but should be conceived, designed and run with meaningful input from students. School food programs provide many opportunities for student involvement in preparation, serving and clean up, all while developing food skills.

I also support a couple of key recommendations from the coalition on what could strengthen Bill C-322.

We need a commitment to ensure there is no marketing to kids. There need to be safeguards against marketing branded or highly processed foods and beverages to children through school food programs.

We need a commitment to Canada-wide program evaluation for consistent reporting. Collecting and sharing data would help measure progress and support program design and implementation.

Last, we need a commitment to a universal program for all children. Aiming at universality is critical so that, progressively, all children in Canada can have access to this program. This bill has recognized the importance of reducing stigma. Aiming towards a universal program does that. As a teacher, I can see the benefit for all students: the opportunity for students to learn and develop the food skills and food literacy they need to thrive in life, while eating delicious and healthy food at school.

I would like to, once again, stress my strong support for this bill. I encourage you to unanimously support it. I encourage you and all political parties in Parliament to vote to pass Bill C-322 as soon as possible.

Thank you.