Canada's Children Need a National Nutrition Program
Breakfast for Learning has joined forces with the Canadian Home and School Federation (CHSF) and the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) to garner government support for a national school nutrition program - and we urge Canadians to get involved.

Studies have shown that 31% of elementary school and 62% of secondary school students do not eat a healthy breakfast daily, and Canada remains one of the few developed nations without a national nutrition program for children. In fact, while the United States subsidizes school meals at a rate of US$1.24 per day, per student (a total of US$12 billion annually), Canada's provincial/territorial governments average less than four cents per day, per student.

Together, our organizations have submitted a proposal to the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance calling for:

• Identification of current programs and practices across the country, particularly regarding administration, nutrition standards and use of local foods;
• Developing national nutrition requirements for school nutrition programs with input from parents, public health authorities and educators; and
• Enlisting existing networks and procedures to meet federal government regulations with a pilot program in jurisdictions across the country and full, national implementation by January 2010.

The proposed program would draw funding from federal, provincial, municipal, non-profit and private sectors and would spend $1.50 per day, per student. Feeding Canada's 5.2 million students in kindergarten to Grade 12 over the 190 days they attend school each year would cost about $1.5 billion annually. Read our Backgrounder: A National Nutritious School Meal Program for Canadian Children. (PDF: 74KB)

In addition, we are urging Canadians to get involved by participating in a letter writing campaign to your Member of Parliament. Simply visit: http://petition.web.net/cspi/ or download a draft letter (DOC: 32KB) to your MP to join us in helping ensure a strong, healthy future for our children and youth.