Human Resources Committee on Feb. 9th, 2026

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

This federal government wants to feed 400,000 kids with $216 million annually.

Do you think you could feed more kids, better?

[Judith Barry]

I think all stakeholders are needed. We were really happy two years ago that finally the federal government was part of the solution. We were the only G7 country without a national school food program. The federal investment is needed. We can look at the impact on those 400,000 students. We can look at a universal reach, because that's the vision of the national school food policy.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I appreciate that.

Who is primarily responsible in Canada for education?

[Judith Barry]

You know that it's the provinces and territories. That's why we need to build on their existing programming.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

This is one of the pieces where I have concerns. I came from a provincial background. I know for a fact that my province has had a school food program for many years. It has been working collaboratively. It has actually worked fairly collaboratively with the federal government in trying to rule this out. I know other provinces didn't necessarily have that framework in place and have been put into a bit of a challenge space.

Ms. Webb, what kind of administrative burden have you heard of from other partners, when it comes to this new national school food program that the government rolled out?

[Carolyn Webb]

We haven't heard from anyone about the administrative burdens. My understanding is that the provinces and territories are responsible for enhancing the programs they already have. For them, I think the new addition is the reporting requirements from the federal government. I can see how that will add certainly to the administrative burden.

Hopefully, though, as Ms. Barry spoke to, we can see this as growing pains and things we can improve on to streamline and coordinate that monitoring and really figure out some good systems, including even what we are all monitoring together like some of those common indicators. As well, some of my colleagues at the University of Saskatchewan have been developing some tools that can be used to support some of that monitoring. I think that as all these tools and platforms are developed, we can....

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Could you speak a little bit to that?

I have read quite a bit about what the University of Saskatchewan is doing. I think it's absolutely spectacular. Perhaps you could share a little bit about that amazing prairie ingenuity.

[Carolyn Webb]

Yes, absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Make it a quick answer, as your time is up.

[Carolyn Webb]

They've received some tools to support monitoring and evaluation, as well as how programs can be run and different models. In other words, if you're looking to monitor this, here are some good questions. We can certainly send information to anyone who's interested.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Ms. Fancy, you have six minutes.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for being here, Ms. Barry and Ms. Webb today.

I'm speaking today as a former administrator and teacher and talking a little bit about just how this program has been quite transformational in terms of education. I know my colleague across the way just talked about the administrative burden. Ask me, because I was in the thick of this. As an educator from Nova Scotia, we were one of the first national adopters. My school board, South Shore Regional Centre for Education, was actually the national template.

When we talk about implementing this program, in the early stages was there a lot of work and some burden? Yes there was, but that's why we always have a good lessons learned document. The benefits from this program, once we worked out some of the kinks over the last year or so, have been tremendous.

I have a couple of questions for both of you today.

As former educator and principal in schools across my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets, I saw first-hand that hungry kids struggle to focus and participate.

Ms. Barry, from your experience, how do you feel that school food programs directly support learning and classroom engagement? I know I could go on forever, but you're here as our witness today.

Thank you.

[Judith Barry]

After more than 30 years of supporting implementation of the quality school breakfast program, the Breakfast Club of Canada has seen tremendous impacts and stories of change. In some regions, we have had school principals tell us that if the next school year were not going to be supported by Breakfast Club of Canada, they would close their doors because they had had so many behavioural issues to deal with before the implementation of the program. In terms of learnings, they couldn't teach at all. Of course, it has a tremendous impact and there are a lot of studies providing evidence on learning, on health and on the ability of the students to create and build healthy relationships amongst themselves.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

That's wonderful.

Also, as a rural education researcher, we did a lot of work with the early development indicators, EDI, reports back decades ago. They were calling on governments to create larger food programs. Having this national food program has been one of the indicators of vulnerability that the EDI reports had really been speaking for.

I'm from a rural and coastal community. Schools here often face some very unique challenges around access and capacity. How can the national school food program help the investments to ensure that rural kids aren't left behind?

This question is for Ms. Webb.

Thank you.

[Carolyn Webb]

Thank you so much.

I would say, again, that all of these are growing pains, as you talked about. Nova Scotia is an early adopter, and it's been really interesting hearing about the program coming into place and being grown. I think that one of the beautiful and challenging things is that there are schools in every region and riding of Canada, and it really is a matter of partnerships, I believe, and figuring out those distribution chains. We know that the last mile is often one of the most challenging, especially for rural and remote communities.

In conversation with our indigenous partners, they were particularly highlighting—and may submit a brief about—the unique challenges for indigenous communities. Very often they are small and need just as many resources, if not more, to get the food provided there. I really want to highlight that equitable programming and funding, so I appreciate that I can speak to that today.

In terms of solutions, it's a matter of really working with the experts in the field, the folks who know those distribution chains. I talked to somebody at the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers' Association who manages their northern fruit and vegetable program in Ontario. They've mapped out all these supply chains and now can distribute snacks in a pretty coordinated way to many rural communities. I think it's just tapping into those experts who have been doing this and working with all sorts of partners to try to make this happen.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I love that we're talking about nutrition and healthy food here.

How do school nutrition programs support not just children, but also working families who are managing or trying to manage the rising cost of food?

[Carolyn Webb]

The wonderful thing about school food programs is that the aim is to bring nutritious food into a school setting where children can learn together, connect with each other and also expand their palate. That is another growing pain because our food culture is often not one that has many of the foods...and so part of the program is helping gain that recognition and so on.

These programs can significantly lower grocery bills for families and make it so that children and youth are exposed to different foods, and they can have those habits for a lifetime of healthy eating.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thanks.

Ms. Barry, you talked a little bit earlier about the 1:2 ratio of beneficial economic value. Could you expand upon that a little bit?

[Judith Barry]

It has been amazing across the globe to see the World Food Programme and many other stakeholders demonstrating the impact of school meals in terms of return on investment. We thought it would be important, as Canada is implementing its first national school food program, to specifically know about Canadian breakfast programs. It was for one—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Sorry, I wasn't watching. We're over by a bit.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the three witnesses, Dylan Kirk, Carolyn Webb and Judith Barry, for being with us today.

I'll start with you, Ms. Barry.

In Quebec, where we have early childhood centres, we understand the importance of feeding toddlers. Quebec was a pioneer and understood the gains to be made, in time and energy, when meals are provided to toddlers in early childhood centres.

Let's go back to schools. I used to be a supply teacher at elementary schools over the lunch hour. I wanted to experience that. I know they're always looking for staff to take care of the kids at lunchtime. It was an extremely rewarding experience. I saw that, in the wake of early childhood centres, schools in Quebec were thinking about solutions, because toddlers were arriving with little to eat in their lunch boxes. You would see a great disparity between the lunch boxes that got opened up. Some lunch hours, we were able to help some kids who had next to nothing in their lunch box. However, we know that it has an impact on their behaviour and on their ability to learn. It was really striking and egregious.

I remember talking to you after I got to Parliament, Ms. Barry. You suggested that I visit two schools in the riding. I visited two, in Waterloo and Granby, to see the volunteers in action and the school meal service. Once again, it was an extremely rewarding experience. It made me realize that, to eat well, young people need support from an entire community. In the last Parliament, you also spoke with my colleague Sylvie Bérubé, among others, about this program.

Obviously, we realize the importance of that, while taking into account the fact that Quebec has unique characteristics and already has its own school food support model.

So how can the federal program support existing initiatives without duplicating services or encroaching? How do you envision that collaboration?

[Judith Barry]

Thank you very much, Ms. Larouche. I think that's an extremely important question.

As far as the federal government's intentions are concerned, as Mrs. Goodridge mentioned, education falls under provincial jurisdiction, so it's important that the federal government continue to respect provincial jurisdiction and that its investments ultimately enhance existing structures in the provinces.

The purpose of the national school food program is really to ensure that there is consistency and that, together, as a society, we can establish a mechanism and a national vehicle that, at the end of the day, will give all students across the country access to healthy food at some point in their schooling, when they need it, regardless of the reason.

The goal is really to build that ecosystem of collaboration between levels of government, civil society organizations and the food industry.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

As we can see, a lot of people revolve around that. They're like little bees that come to life to serve those meals. When you experience that in a school, you can see the hive of activity. In return, you see smiles, too.

Is federal funding currently adequate and predictable enough to sustain existing programs?

[Judith Barry]

We absolutely need federal investments to be indexed to inflation over the years.

For the time being, if we looked at universal participation and investments that would reach all students across the country, we'd be talking about a federal investment of 15 cents per child per day. The provinces and territories currently invest an average of 40 cents per child per day. So, if we consider the cost of a meal, be it breakfast or lunch, those amounts are, of course, insufficient at the moment.