With the ongoing consultation of a pan-Canadian School Food Policy, PROOF has sent an open letter to Minister Gould and Minister Bibeau, calling for a stop to the unsubstantiated assertions that a school food policy will reduce food insecurity for families in Canada.
Advocates for a pan-Canadian school food policy have long recognized that universal, high-quality, and nutritious school food that fits community priorities is important in its own right, but that such programming cannot substitute for dedicated action on income adequacy.
The conflation of school food policy with food insecurity reduction detracts from school food advocates’ years of hard work to build the case for a school food policy that addresses the diverse educational and nutritional needs of children.
We are concerned that the federal government’s perpetuation of the false claim that a national school food policy will reduce food insecurity will silence important discussions about how the federal and provincial/territorial/indigenous governments can reduce food insecurity among families with children.
Read our open letter here. We welcome all to add their names and/or to reference this letter in your own consultation submission.
