Grant: Project Grant

Until recently, Canada was one of a few high-income countries without a national school food program or policy. In April 2024, the Government of Canada announced funding for a National School Food Program and released a National School Food Policy. Our research group, leaders in school food research in Canada, is well-equipped and uniquely positioned to examine the early implementation of this social policy and its impact on the health and wellbeing of children and their school communities. Our study will evaluate the implementation and impact of Canada's National School Food Program during its first three years. We will use data from the new Canadian Income Survey's seven-question school food module to describe key characteristics from Canadian school food programs in 2024 (prior to National School Food Policy implementation) and then examine changes in school food program availability and use over time across regions. Next, we will draw on data from mixed-methods case studies of school boards and individual schools in four provinces, examining changes to school food environments. We will conduct school staff, student and caregiver surveys, interviews with school staff and school board decision-makers, focus groups with students, and observations of the evolving school food context. Our team includes the Coalition for Healthy School Food (henceforth the Coalition; the largest Canadian school food advocacy organization), individual school boards, the Canadian School Boards Association and a group of 12 of Canada's leading school food and nutrition inequities researchers.