moved for leave to introduce Bill C-298, An Act to develop a national strategy on school food security.
Madam Speaker, it is my honour to rise in the House to present my private member's bill, an act to develop a national strategy on school food security, seconded by the member for Kingston and the Islands.
The bill provides for the development of a national strategy on school food security so that all elementary and secondary school students in Canada have access to proper nutrition.
As many members in the House and many of my constituents know, I was a high school teacher before entering politics. During that time, I saw far too many students coming to school without a lunch or without lunch money. I have wanted to do something about this for many years.
This strategy would allow our government to study the impact that nutritional deficiencies have on the health and learning outcomes of elementary and high school students, and to work with provinces to fund food security programs that would result from a national school food security strategy to ensure that they operate at little to no direct cost to students and their families.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)