Thank you. Good morning.

On behalf of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, I want to thank you, Mr. Chair and the committee, for inviting me to speak on the Budget Implementation Act.

The Coalition for Healthy School Food is made up of more than 300 non-profit member organizations and over 140 endorsing organizations from all provinces and territories. We've been advocating federal funding for a cost-shared national school food program for years, and we were pleased with its inclusion in the April 16 budget.

This is a historic moment for Canada. Thanks to this investment, we will be joining all the other G7 countries and most industrialized countries in the world by establishing a national school food program. This investment is the result of an excellent social and economic policy that will ensure that children and youth at schools across the country are well fed, ready to learn and have an equal opportunity to succeed. It will also help families by lowering grocery bills and will support women and parents, food suppliers, food systems, employment, economic growth and communities.

As stated by a recent World Food Programme report, all the evidence shows that school meal programs, along with other social protection initiatives, are one of the smartest long-term investments that any government can make. Since 2023, we've seen more and more provinces and territories invest in school food, including $214 million over three years in British Columbia, $30 million annually committed by Manitoba and $18.8 million in Nova Scotia. As of the 2024-25 school year, the combined investment from provinces, territories and municipalities is projected to be over $285 million annually.

Despite growing investments from other levels of government, programs need federal support now more than ever. In Ontario, for example, the affordability crisis and other factors have made it so that programs are really struggling to feed the children and youth who access them. Over the past three years, student nutrition program providers report that food expenses have increased by 40% to 80%, while student participation rates have risen by 25% to 40%. This has impacted the quality and quantity of the food served in programs: Some regions can no longer serve a full meal and offer a simple snack like a granola bar instead, while others have reduced the number of days that they serve kids or have had to shut programs down months before the end of the school year because they've run out of money.

Federal funding will provide enormous support to existing programs in this country. This funding is necessary and should be disbursed as soon as possible. Although all the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal investments combined aren't enough to reach all children and youth in Canada, federal funding will help existing programs ensure that students are well fed, that schools stay off waiting lists and that far more students are included in school food programs. These programs will be able to stabilize, expand and adopt best practices, in particular by involving students in planning, growing, preparing, serving and learning about foods and by providing good jobs. They can also purchase more local foods, which, as we all know, generates significant benefits for food suppliers and communities.

The coalition has been advocating that federal funding be be transferred to provinces and territories because each province and territory has an existing system in place to flow funding to school food providers, along with a mechanism for public accountability. All provinces and territories also have food and nutrition policies that strive to ensure that the food served is as healthy as possible. We know that many provinces and territories have reached out to Minister Sudds to express their support and their interest in federal partnership, because school food programs need a significant amount of investment to serve quality programs, to support the health and well-being of children and youth and to succeed.

The coalition has also been advocating that the federal government enter into discussions with indigenous leaders to negotiate agreements for the creation and enhancement of permanent, independent, distinctions-based first nations, Métis, and Inuit school meal programs, and we ask that this work happen without delay.

We recommend that your committee ensure implementation of the budget, which states:

In Budget 2024, the government proposes to provide a statutory appropriation authority in the Budget Implementation Act that would enable the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development to sign bilateral agreements and transfer funding to provinces and territories to support National School Food programming for the 2024–2025 school year.

For the health and well-being of children, youth and families across Canada, we urge you to support the budget implementation act so that this process of signing bilateral agreements can begin as soon as possible.

Thank you.