Can Toronto make school meals universal? Here’s the plan

We all know we can’t focus when we’re hungry.

Forty per cent of children go to school without having eaten breakfast, according to a survey by the Toronto District School Board.

The Student Nutrition Program addresses this issue by providing a healthy breakfast, lunch and snack to over 243,000 kids every day in the school year.

Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey, the acting medical officer of health, and Myuran Palasandiran, the director of operations and business services at Toronto Public Health, gave a presentation on building a universal student food program in Toronto.

Dr. Lamptey said that the city is taking steps to expand the program and its coverage. 

• To date, the nutrition program is operational in 75 per cent of Toronto’s schools. 
• The city announced a vision to provide a universal morning meal by September 2026 and a universal lunch by September 2030. 
• In December 2024, Mayor Olivia Chow declared a food insecurity emergency in the city and asked the provincial government to increase funding to school food programs. Also in December, City Council approved 23 more school nutrition programs that will reach 8,000 additional students starting January 2025.
• In the 2025 budget discussion, Toronto Public Health increased funding for student nutrition programs by $6.886 million. This increase allows the program to expand to 25 new schools. It also allows existing programs to reach 13,500 new students.

However, according to Lamptey’s presentation, existing sources of funding don’t cover all program costs. The program is funded by three different sources: 

1. Governmental funding, which includes $4.7 million from federal funding, $8.5 million from provincial funding and $21.9 million from the City of Toronto. 
2. Non-governmental funding, such as parent fundraising, corporate donations and grants. 
3. Non-monetary funding, which includes food and equipment gifts, as well as the labour of parents, volunteers and students who run the program.

Neethan Shan, chair and trustee at the Toronto District School Board, asked Palasandiran how the city is supporting schools who need the Student Nutrition Program but have limitations that keeps them from implementing it. Palasandiran said the city progressively supports schools who lack the infrastructure (for example, a sink for washing food) by providing boxed snack meals first. Then, it introduces freshly cut and washed fruits and vegetables. 

Geneviève Oger, Viamonde school board trustee for western Toronto, encouraged the City-School Boards Advisory Committee to allow schools some flexibility in the timing of the snack program. Some schools may want to implement it during homework help programs instead of breakfast or lunch, she explained. 

What were the results of the discussion?

The City-School Boards Advisory Committee recommended that City Council request the federal government to shift any unspent money from the 2025 budget in the National Student Food Program to Toronto’s programs. 

The committee also recommended that City Council request the newly elected Government of Ontario to increase its per-student financial contribution levels in a way that would match or exceed the city’s contributions to the Student Nutrition Program.