Evidence of meeting #51 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was children.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK
How many of these monthly visits involve children?
Vice President, Advocacy and Research, Food Banks Canada
The number is 775,000.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK
How has that number changed since 2019?
Vice President, Advocacy and Research, Food Banks Canada
I don't have that number in front of me, but since last year, it's up by about 65,000 year over year.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK
Can you get me the number from 2019 and also table that with this committee?
Conservative
Liberal
Liberal
Natilien Joseph Liberal Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To begin, I would say that we should never have to fight to convince anyone to help the most vulnerable, especially children. I was a child myself, and I remember that, when I was young, my parents struggled to provide me with enough to eat when I went to school. This is Canada. We must ensure that our children never have to go through what I went through.
I want to thank Ms. Pagé for her commitment, her compassion, her experience and, above all, her frontline expertise.
Ms. Pagé, based on your experience in the field and, above all, on your truly invaluable contribution to our community, could you tell us what improvements could be made to Canada's national school food program to better meet the needs of the families and organizations that provide these services?
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
In fact, there are various blind spots we can examine, but each region will certainly have its own unique realities. As I mentioned earlier, what really concerns me is the children whose families do not have the resources to access child care services and who go home to eat. Will these children actually eat? What we're told in the schools is that the children are fed by the Breakfast Club in the morning. Then they go back home and when they return in the afternoon, the schools notice that the children are less focused and more restless. I would say there are ways we can help them. We need to put programs and resources in place to provide them with a meal, so they can take that meal home and eat properly.
Liberal
Natilien Joseph Liberal Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you, Ms. Pagé.
Are there any specific needs on the ground that should be given greater consideration in the implementation of these programs?
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
You know, Mr. Joseph, we're in your riding, and we're in the Lower St. Lawrence region, and the realities are not the same. When we deliver meals to schools in rural areas, where we have to travel 30 kilometres to serve a school with a capacity of 40 students, the costs are exorbitant for our social economy enterprise. It's difficult to provide these meals because of the cost of the ingredients we need to prepare them.
The program needs to be more equitable, not equal, toward all caterers in Quebec and Canada. The amount per meal should not be the same in rural areas as it is in metropolitan areas.
Liberal
Natilien Joseph Liberal Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you.
Ms. Pagé, have you received any feedback from families and students about this program?
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
This program provides relief for families. Inflation is putting a strain on parents' budgets. As I mentioned earlier, the school program called La cantine pour tous is a subsidized meal program. Parents pay according to their means. This means parents have the option of providing their child with a low-cost meal, which gives them peace of mind. They know their child will be well fed, so they have one less thing to worry about.
Liberal
Natilien Joseph Liberal Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you.
I'm not sure if I have any time left, Mr. Chair.
I will continue with you, Ms. Pagé.
Has demand for this type of program changed over the past few years?
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
Yes. Compared to last year, demand has increased on our end. We serve new schools every year. This year, we are serving two new schools in your riding, the greater Longueuil–Saint-Hubert area. In the Lower St. Lawrence region, we are able to serve four new schools this year. The needs are urgent.
Liberal
Natilien Joseph Liberal Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
I have one last question since I do not have much time left. What kind of support would enable organizations like yours to increase their capacity to meet demand?
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
Everyone's situation is different. For us, several factors are important, including the capacity of our facilities, the cost of food, labour costs and employee retention. When we are hit by the ups and downs of inflation, it's harder to meet growing needs.
Liberal
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much, Ms. Webb and Mr. McRoberts, for being here with us today. It's concerning to see that in 2026, so many people are still going hungry. This is a situation that needs to be addressed.
My first question if for you, Ms. Pagé.
As we can see, your organization plays a very important role on the south shore, in Longueuil. You mentioned in your opening remarks that you actively integrate people with disabilities into your workforce. That is very interesting. It allows them to thrive. There's no doubt about it.
You said that it was a social economy model. I'd like you to explain a little more about what sources of revenue this model allows your organization to tap into and how you go about doing that.
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
I am very proud to tell you that our social economy enterprise is profitable even though it receives no recurring funding. I would say that it's the for-profit initiatives we've launched alongside our food security projects that enable us to achieve this feat. Selling our products to businesses that support our cause or our clientele, and that keep coming back to us, allows us to hire employees and maintain a supervised workspace where we can prepare low-cost meals for schoolchildren.
We also prepare a lot of snacks that are distributed free of charge or sold at low cost in schools. The schools pay us with the funds they receive under budgetary measure 1390 on food assistance.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
That's really interesting.
You also mentioned a few times what I call gaps in service provision. At one point, I worked as a substitute teacher in elementary schools to look after the children in the schoolyard during lunch, as well as to supervise their meals. The school where I was working didn't have a cafeteria at the time. I could see the disparity in the contents of the children's lunch boxes. The staff had to get creative to look around the school to try to find a little something to eat for some of the students, while other students right next to them had full lunch boxes.
We can certainly surmise that this disparity isn't limited to school, but, as you said, that it also has an impact outside of school. There are gaps in the services available. I'm thinking in particular of children whose parents can't afford to pay for child care, whether at school, after school, or during the summer.
I'd like to give you the opportunity to go over a few recommendations for addressing these gaps in our service offerings.
Executive Director, Les Cuisiniers Différents
I would recommend an option that would allow what we call “walkers”, that is, children who walk home, to pick up their meal at school and take it home.
The child care centre staff often tell us these days that sometimes a lunch box contains only the main meal and no snacks. There's nothing else. That's why we also work with partners like Moisson Rive-Sud, which provides us with the ingredients we use to prepare the food. That way, we repurpose certain foods to prepare small snacks and lunch bags that we send to school.
These are all measures that can be implemented.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you very much.
Mr. McRoberts, I will now turn to you.
Back home in Granby, the food bank is SOS Dépannage. I think it is even a member of your organization, Food Banks Canada. In fact, it has also developed a social economy model. Following the release of the Hunger Count report, the executive director of SOS Dépannage asked to meet with me to discuss its findings. The profile of those in need of food assistance is changing. There has been a steady, slight increase in the number of food bank users over the past few years. Among other things, the number of seniors using food banks continues to rise slightly. There are now more working people with children as well. As I said, it's frustrating to see that even people who work cannot guarantee their own food security.
As we can see, food prices are having an impact on the organizations you manage, and even on food banks. We can also see that fixed incomes can no longer keep pace with food inflation. There are recommendations on this issue, such as increasing pensions for seniors, which are fixed incomes that are not indexed to inflation.
I invite you to go over other ways to increase revenue.
