Program directory · Employment and Social Development Canada
National School Food Program
- Department
- Employment and Social Development Canada
- Program code
- BGM13 (HRSD)
- Core responsibility
- Social Development
- In Departmental Plans
- 2025-26 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
For its component of the National School Food Program, Employment and Social Development Canada uses funding agreements with provinces and territories to expand and enhance existing school food programming across Canada. Investments also support Indigenous organizations and partners to build capacity in support of Indigenous school food policy and programming. ESDC is also supporting additional data collection and research on school food programs.
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2024-25. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| National School Food Program | This program | 2024-25 – 2028-29 | $71.6M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Budget 2024 measure “A National School Food Program”: $1,000M in total over its years (linked to this program by name, a best-effort match). | Budget 2024, PDF page 148 |
| 2025 | Budget 2025 measure “Making the National School Food Program Permanent”: $217M in total over its years (linked to this program by name, a best-effort match). | Budget 2025, PDF page 187 |
| 2025-26 | Planned spending $149M, against $71.6M in 2024-25 (+108%). | Latest Departmental Plan |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
No results reported yet.
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 250,000 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | — | $71.6M |
| 2025-26 | $149M | — |
| 2026-27 | $146M | — |
| 2027-28 | $146M* | — |
| 2028-29 | $145M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | — | 11 |
| 2025-26 | 16 | — |
| 2026-27 | 17 | — |
| 2027-28 | 17* | — |
| 2028-29 | 17* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 plan | $149,025,105 | $149,398,252 | $149,421,805 | |
| 2026-27 plan | $146,416,044 | $146,440,101 | $144,569,993 | |
| Actual |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
