Hi, dear members of the HUMA committee. I'm really happy to be here today.
I'll express myself mainly in French, but please know that I can answer any questions in French or English.
Nearly two years after the initial investment in the national school food program was announced, the federal government included legislation in clause 599 of Bill C‑15 to make the program permanent and to contribute $216 million per year to it. The Breakfast Club of Canada and a number of other civil society partners welcomed this bill. More specifically, the club submitted a brief recommending that Bill C‑15 be adopted to secure sustainable, long-term funding and stability for students and their families, regardless of changes in political leadership or fiscal cycles.
To support this recommendation, the Breakfast Club of Canada included in its brief new data from a cost-benefit analysis conducted by economists at AppEco, confirming that for every dollar invested in school breakfast programs, society receives $2 in socio-economic benefits. These returns are driven by three concrete and quantifiable impacts: increased disposable income for families, higher lifetime earnings linked to improved educational attainment and reduced health care costs.
To our first recommendation, we add that it's also important to encourage the federal government to index its investments to inflation and to invest in infrastructure and local procurement.
The second recommendation in the Breakfast Club of Canada calls on the government to recognize the national school food program's multidimensional nature, which requires coordinated actions and mechanisms across government levels and departments, including formal ways to engage with civil society organizations and food industry partners.
According to the World Food Programme's Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil, it's very important to set up coordination mechanisms that involve all sectors and that include mechanisms to evaluate and to involve organizations and the food industry. The goal is to intentionally generate productivity and ensure that there's a lasting impact on the resilience of food systems.
For all of these reasons, we recommend that Bill C‑15 be adopted.
We hope to be able to answer all your questions.