Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Nick McRoberts. I'm the vice-president of advocacy and research at Food Banks Canada. We represent a network of 5,500 local food banks and community organizations from coast to coast to coast.
Your study is looking at two things together: food price inflation and school food. In our experience, they are closely connected.
I would like to begin by recognizing progress. The current government has reconfirmed its support for the national school food program. That permanence gives schools, provinces, territories and community partners something they can plan around.
At the same time, we see every day how much families are still carrying. Our newly released “HungerCount” shows that food bank visits have more than doubled since 2019, reaching a record 2.35 million people in March 2026 alone. Over 35% of monthly food bank visits are from one- and two-parent families. One in three people walking through a food bank's doors each month in this country are children. When a household's grocery budget is cut to cover rent or hydro, it's children who feel that first. In our latest polling, one in five people in Canada said that they were eating less because they could not afford more. They are being forced to make impossible choices.
This isn't a static problem. Trade instability with our largest trading partner, climate-driven disruptions to production and volatile input costs are all still moving through the system and landing directly on grocery bills. Food price inflation isn't separate from the program's design question.
I would ask the committee to look closely at the gap between funding meals and the need for infrastructure that makes meal delivery possible. Food Banks Canada ran a school food infrastructure fund last year through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada that shows exactly what that gap looks like. With $1.6 million provided across 24 grants for things like refrigerated vans, freezers, blast chillers and storage, community organizers went from supporting 190 schools to 241 schools, reaching nearly 8,000 additional students and moving an extra quarter of a million pounds of food each month. A food bank in Barrie grew from 26 schools to 30 schools served by a single refrigerated vehicle. A kitchen in Revelstoke was able to increase the number of meals served by a third with four chest freezers. Building capacity is the difference between a school food program that's reliable and one that's improvised. This is particularly important for low-income, indigenous, northern, rural or remote communities.
School food is one important part of a bigger picture, and our After the Bell program helps show why. Started in 2015, After the Bell delivers child-friendly food packs through local food banks to school-age children over the summer, when school meal programs are closed. It began with 700 packs. In 2023, 185,000 packs reached children in more than 200 communities across the country. The need for it tells us something very important: Children's food needs don't stop when the school day or the school year ends. School food and community food support work best together.
With that in mind, we offer three suggestions for the committee's consideration.
First, consider infrastructure alongside per-meal funding in the program's funding model so that programs can run reliably. Infrastructure at every level continues to be one of the largest inhibitors to moving food effectively in this country.
Second, when looking at outcomes, look beyond the school day to summers, weekends and holidays. Ensure that children always have access to healthy, adequate meals.
Third, keep household income in view. The federal government estimates that school food can save participating families with two children about $800 a year. That is real help. Income support remains what can directly address food insecurity. Our October polling found that one-third of respondents with household incomes below $50,000 had skipped a meal in the past three months because they could not afford it.
Food insecurity, hunger and poverty are not inevitable. At the same time, they won't solely be fixed by school food programming. We need structural changes to social supports to improve the lives of people in Canada. That is why we must relieve hunger today in order to solve hunger tomorrow. Food banks are glad to be partners in this work, and we would welcome the chance to share more of what we have learned.
I look forward to your questions.
Thank you.