Emily Carr Secondary School shows how food brings people together
Posted: July 8, 2026
Categories: nourish to flourish
Emily Carr Secondary School is home to approximately 805 students in grades 9 through 12, in Woodbridge, Ontario. We are located in the Greater Toronto Area and our school community is rapidly becoming more demographically diverse reflecting our location. We welcome Multi-Language Learners, international students, and refugees and we also serve many students with very diverse Special Education Needs in five dedicated community classes. This year, our “nourish to flourish” grant helped to bridge a gap between our existing mainstream classes, our specific student needs in our diverse community classes and our daily school food initiatives.
Our initial vision of this grant opportunity has shifted since the start of this school year. School board policies made it difficult for us to bring in outside guest speakers as originally planned. Furthermore, our Food and Nutrition classes were not scheduled at a time where they were able to prepare and immediately serve fresh meals during the standard school day. Even though we were faced with scheduling conflicts and logistical hurdles, we improvised to stay true to the vision of our original proposal. We shifted our focus toward building deep connections inside our own walls between groups within the school who often are not included as part of our mainstream programming. We considered ways that we could partner with our community classes, leadership students, and Multi Language Learners to host regular, family-style lunches.
To better support this mission, we dedicated the capital funds portion of this grant to purchase some much needed kitchen equipment and a brand new stove. This investment helped students to plan and prepare hot and nutritious meals because they had the tools needed to do so. Together, they cooked everything from pasta and meatballs to nutritious breakfasts and morning smoothies packed with fresh and frozen fruit. We challenged students to prepare food from scratch, teaching essential culinary skills to our community classes, using as many local ingredients as possible. This hands-on environment allowed our senior students to step up as mentors for our community classes and provided a space to build real-life skills. Our students had control over the ingredients, ensuring meals were fully inclusive—guaranteeing healthy options that safely met halal, vegan, and specific dietary needs.
We also navigated our scheduling challenges by hosting free pop-up breakfast events for the entire school. Supported by our leadership class and our Multi-Language Learners, these events were a resounding success. They brought students together from all different social groups, pathways, and backgrounds to start the morning with a shared, healthy meal that anyone could enjoy without stigma.
The impact of this grant has been profoundly positive. Navigating these setbacks taught our students and our teachers how to be resilient and adaptable. Breaking bread together at our family-style lunches and seeing the social impact on our community classes has been heartwarming and has challenged social barriers while fostering a deep sense of equity, inclusion, and belonging. We are incredibly grateful for this grant, which has allowed Emily Carr to prove that with a little creativity, food can always bring people together.