Health committee  Thank you for your question. I will answer in English. You touched on a couple of points. I'll speak to the infrastructure funding. We have asked for funding for infrastructure because many schools are not built with kitchens or with facilities for growing food. We've said a

Health committee  As you said, the NDP committed $1 billion over four years and the Liberal government committed $1 billion over five years. In the discussions we've had, folks keep saying they're committed to this issue and are very keen. I wish we had a crystal ball, but we're just fighting hard

Health committee  We haven't seen the money. We haven't had any firm commitment. As I said, we're speaking to whomever we can and hoping that it can flow soon. Programs really need these funds.

Health committee  Thank you very much. Where do I start? The coalition has eight guiding principles that we've asked a national school food program to follow. A program should be health-promoting, in line with Canada's food guide. It should be universal and accessible to all students. I'm not

Health committee  I can only speak to what I've heard from the members of our coalition. I support the coalition rather than run programs myself. Your question is specifically whether programs are following the food guide. I'll say that it depends on the program. Some have provincial and territo

Health committee  I haven't heard anything about liability. I've heard a lot of interest in serving kids whole, healthy foods and trying to do that whenever possible. I think one of the biggest concerns is the lack of funding and how difficult it is sometimes to meet the needs of the food guide

Health committee  One of our big positions is that children of all socio-economic demographics are not eating well and that all children deserve access to healthy food at school. Many might have a long bus ride if they're in a rural community and travel a long way to school, or their families work

Health committee  Yes. Thank you. You talked about good models. The Yukon First Nation Education Directorate has an excellent program that feeds students and also involves local caterers to provide country foods for students. It is quite an extensive program that we do reference often. In Newfou

Health committee  We don't have any specific data. Because we don't have a national program, we also don't have a national databank of exactly who's running the programs. We have 240 member organizations, and most programs are run, from what I've seen, by school districts, and there are some paren

Health committee  Thanks for this question. In a way, we have an advantage because we have so many other countries to learn from. There are many countries that really involve the students in preparing and serving the food. Japan and France are great examples that really involve the kids in the wh

Health committee  Our specific request is for schools from K to 12. We have been speaking with some of the folks working on the child care accords regarding food in the child care setting, but that's not a part of our specific request. It's really limited to the elementary and high school settings

Health committee  No, I don't know the details for day cares. I do know that many day cares do have food.... I think day cares often have a component of food as part of their day care service, but our work is not focused on that.

Health committee  I will speak again to the school food program setting. Thank you for the question. It's such a relevant question. We have spoken with many of our members across the country and we hear that everyone is struggling with the rise in food prices. There are many media reports coveri

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for inviting me to speak on children's health. The Coalition for Healthy School Food is made up of more than 240 non-profit member organizations and over 120 endorsers from all provinces and territories. We're advocating federal fundi