Grant: Project Grant

The diet quality of Canadian children across the socio-economic spectrum during school hours is poor, yet school settings can be important to promote health behaviours that can last a lifetime. Once children reach school age, they spend more of their waking hours in school than in any other environment. Children's eating habits may be easier to influence than those of adults. In Canada, households with children are more likely to experience food insecurity, and school food programs that are universally available to all children can support the development of healthy eating patterns across groups of varying socioeconomic status. There is a significant gap in rigourous community-engaged academic research on the impact of school meal programs, especially universal ones. The purpose of this population health intervention research is to study the impacts of a two-year universal, curriculum-integrated healthy school lunch program in elementary schools in Saskatoon on food consumption, dietary quality and food and nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices. This study will take place in two intervention elementary schools matched with two control schools. We will compare pre, during and post intervention parameters in intervention and control schools in partnership with a local school board, a school food community-based organization and national school food collaborators. The opportunity we have to systematically and comprehensively study a curriculum-integrated school lunch program, as well as the promising practices for school food programs across Canada is without precedent and can inform ongoing government planning and consultation.