Public food procurement has been identified by the UN FAO as a game changer to promote more sustainable food systems, local procurement and healthy diets. Yet, the majority of school food programs in Ontario and across Canada do not procure and distribute locally produced food.
This is a missed market opportunity that could be a win for farmers, schools and students.
As a 1st year PhD student in Geography, Bruna’s research is in food systems resilience through alternative food networks (ATNs).
As a 2nd year MSc student in Animal Biosciences in Nutrition and Modelling, Sedley’s research focus is veal calf growth and performance predictors.
As a 1st year PhD in Geography, Manjurul’s research focuses on climate-resilient food systems in vulnerable coastal communities of Bangladesh.
As a 4th year PhD in Environmental Sciences, Mary’s research focus is in soil physics and management.
The challenge proposed for this project is a complex one because it deals with a multifaceted, dynamic, intersecting systems of food, education, health and more across a country that is geographically, economically and socially diverse.
The objectives of this initiative were two-fold:
The activities and outputs below were determined by the student researchers with consideration for their interest as well as individual and collective capacity, along with input from the community partners and stakeholders engaged along the way.
Over the course of the project, the team undertook a literature review to inform their own understanding of the issue and identify areas of opportunity, including an exploration of the history of school food programs, supply chain and related issues in Ontario and across Canada.
Farmers in Ontario and across Canada have had little opportunity to meaningfully engage in and inform school food programs and policies that could impact them. The aim of this roundtable was to bring together farmers from different locations in Ontario (representing different sizes of farms and including a variety of farm types) for an introductory conversation. Read the summary blog post.
School food programs are unique and include many different actors. Through a mapping activity, the team sought to identify the many potential stakeholders that may exist in a given school food system, and create a tool that could be used at the community level to chart each stakeholder’s potential influence against their interest and availability to engage on the issue.
The research team organized and facilitated a series of meetings with individual subject matter experts bringing perspectives of funders, academia, and supply chain distribution. This informed their own learning, as well as a final report.
A 90-minute roundtable and follow-up survey sought input from Ontario’s Food and Logistic Coordinators (FLCs) who facilitate the Student Nutrition Ontario programs to 1) seek feedback on the stakeholder map tool (above); 2) learn about their local producer relationships as well as unique opportunities and challenges to engaging farmers and other local food producers in their respective regions.
The research team’s summary of activities and findings culminated in a final report shared with the project partners, as well as a summary presentation to their classmates and public webinar. View a recording of the webinar.
With a federal budget commitment of $1 billion over 5-years toward a National School Food Program (April 2024) followed by the release of a National School Food Policy (June 2024) there is not only a window of opportunity to support purchasing and distribution of local foods to schools in Ontario, and across Canada, but for the first time we have a vision and policy to direct these efforts.
Much work remains to be done, however, in realizing the policy’s principles for programs to be:
As well as to achieve the policy’s objective to “Create opportunities for local economies and reflect of local and regional circumstances.”
By summarizing some of the barriers and opportunities that emerged in this project, the graphic below provides insights into possible next steps to program implementation that will help carve a path that aligns with the National School Food Policy’s principles and objectives:
Other topics for exploration raised throughout this project, but that were out of scope and remain important to pursue, include but are not limited to:
Drs. Rachel Engler-Stringer and Amberley Ruetz have included the development of food procurement policies as a key step in what needs to happen now to develop a national school food program. See their article What needs to happen next for Canada to have a successful school food program in The Conversation.
From school food practitioners and farmers to academics and funders, the research team would like to extend its sincere thanks to the many individuals who took time to meet and share their experiences, knowledge and expertise on this important issue.
This initiative was made possible thanks to the support of the Arrell Food Institute and the University of Guelph Food from Thought along with the community partner team:
Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC) is a pan-Canadian charitable organization whose purpose is to transform how food is experienced, learned and celebrated in all schools across Canada. F2CC takes a partnership-based approach to grow the capacity of diverse school communities across the country to foster vibrant school food systems by connecting students to food and the local systems that produce it. We do this through what we refer to as a farm to school (also called local food to school) approach.
Student Nutrition Ontario Central East Region offers nutritious foods to school-age children and youth in K-12 grades, through breakfast, lunch, and snack programs (SNPs) in over 700 schools in urban and rural communities across 7 regions of Central Eastern Ontario. The goal of the programs is to support student learning and healthy development.
Sustain Ontario hosts the Ontario Edible Education Network, which supports individuals and organizations across the province to share resources, ideas, and experience and to make it easier for children and youth across Ontario to eat, grow, cook, celebrate, and learn about healthy, local and sustainably produced food.
The Coalition for Healthy School Food is a Canada-wide, non-partisan network of 265+ non-profit organizational members and 125+ organizational endorsers in every province and territory advocating for public investment in a universal cost-shared nutritious school meal program with consistent standards.
