Windsor school food providers hope to expand service after Ontario strikes deal with feds | CBC News

School food providers in Windsor, Ont., are hoping to feed more students with money the province recently secured with the federal government.

Last week, it was announced Ontario reached a deal with Ottawa that would see $108.5 million spread out over the next three years to fund a school food program. It’s estimated that would amount to 9.8 million additional meals per year — equal to another 160,000 students.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the national program is part of his government’s efforts to tackle an affordability crisis in Canada.

Currently, there is a patchwork of programs operating around Ontario.

One of the agencies involved — that runs programs in the Windsor-area — is the Victorian Order of Nurses.

Heather MacArthur, with VON, says it will increase their ability to offer more meals each week compared to the existing limitations of what can be provided.

“The fact that we may be able to offer more five days a week would certainly help,” she said.

“Taking some of the schools off the wait-list is exciting so that we can get more nutritious food and snacks to students because we know that having our students well fed from a nutritional perspective certainly helps with their learning.”

The VON in Windsor delivers snacks and meals to roughly 95 schools, MacArthur says, impacting about 27,000 students every year.

“We currently have 13 schools on our wait list for the Windsor area.” 

MacArthur says what schools receive, and how much, is based on their “economical perspective.”

“We have two programs, so we either have our food logistics program where we actually purchase food on behalf of the schools for better buying power, or we send the money directly to the schools for them to purchase the food for their students.”

Stephanie Segave-Tiessen, with the Windsor-Essex United Way, says she’s excited about the investment from the federal government, calling it a “big shift” in terms of policy.

“It gets us closer to being able to provide more of those healthy meals and really moving beyond snacks and potentially delivering healthy lunch to our students.” 

The United Way’s local programs provide hot lunches to just under 1,000 students across two west Windsor schools each week, according to Segave-Tiessen.

She says with any new dollars trickling into the system, she thinks it’s important to ensure students of all demographics and areas are being considered to be included in these food programs.

“I think we can learn from the lessons in other countries, such as the United States, where really a stigmatized approach really does not work,” she said.

“There’s a variety of reasons. Certainly diet related disease in Canada comes with a huge economic burden. Again, investing in kids is an investment in the future.”