Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools
Everyone has the opportunity to Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools.
In March 2013 Ontario’s Healthy Kids Strategy recommended a universal Student Nutrition Program for all Ontario publicly funded elementary and secondary schools. The recommendation put forward that programs should provide food literacy education including learning about where food comes from, the hands-on experience of cooking, and links to the school curriculum.
To build on this momentum, Sustain Ontario’s Edible Education Network has developed a toolkit of case studies, fact sheets, presentations, messages and stories to help decision-makers envision how a stronger school food environment could be advanced in Ontario. We hope that parents, teachers, program providers, and other advocates will be able to use these resources to make the case to their provincial, municipal, and school decision-makers for stronger school food programs for all of our kids.
Are you a decision-maker?
Download the following resources to learn about how you can Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools:
- Our Current Opportunity: A 2-page brief that provides background information about how our current moment in time offers a significant opportunity to advance good, healthy food in schools.
- What is meant by a “Universal Student Nutrition Program”?: A 2-page brief that discusses the merits of a universal program that is accessible to all students within a school.
- Student Nutrition Programs and Food Literacy: A 4-page brief that discusses meal programs and food literacy as complementary initiatives that support healthy eating among children and youth. The brief also puts forward how school food programs can advance significant health, education, community and economic priorities.
- Opportunities to Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools: A series of 1-page briefs that put forward opportunities for key policy decision-makers to Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools.
- For School Trustees
- For Local Government Representatives
- For MPPs
- For the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS)
- For the Ontario Ministry of Education
- For the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)
- For the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (OMHLTC)
- For the Ontario Ministry of Finance
- For the Office of the Premier
- Advancing Good Healthy Food in Schools: Envisioning How a Healthy School Food Environment Could be Moved Forward in Ontario: A 20-page document that provides a range of ideas for how good, healthy schools could be advanced in Ontario.
Are you a school food advocate?
Download any of the above briefs to bring to your elected representatives or government staff and/or access the following additional tools and resources:
- Key Messages re: Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools: Whether you’re planning to meet with policy staff at the provincial level, present at a meeting of school trustees, or ask questions when your municipal candidate comes to your door it’s critical to have your 2-3 priority messages at your fingertips. Here are some key messages that you can use to make your case for good healthy food in schools.
- About Student Nutrition Programs: This 2-page template can be adapted to your own city, town or region to educate your local decision-makers about how Student Nutrition Programs work.
- Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools Powerpoint: This template slideshow presentation can be adapted to your situation / specific audience. Please add to it, delete from it, and generally use it to make pitches for funding or to justify a decision in support of school meals and food programming. (Click image above to go to slideshow.)
- Innovative Student Nutrition Programs in Ontario: Identifying Case Study Examples: This 22-page document that was developed in partnership with the University of Guelph’s Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship presents 9 case studies of Student Nutrition Programs in Ontario that are integrating elements of food literacy, cultural sensitivity, local food purchasing, or other innovative elements into their programming. The report summarizes key themes that emerged among the case study examples including how SNPs have made their programming work and common challenges that they’ve encountered. The 9 case study sheets that are contained within the report can also be downloaded as separate documents that can be included in any package for decision-makers to demonstrate what’s possible for school food programming:
- 3 Acres Tastebuds Local Harvest Program
- Carrots for Kids Program
- C.W. Jefferys Breakfast Program
- Glen Shields Breakfast Program
- Growing Up Organic Seasonal Harvest Program
- Halton Food for Thought Farm to School
- The Julien Project Horticultural Internship Program
- VON Plentiful Harvest Collaboration
- Wake Up Wellington
Thank You to the following foundations for their support for this initiative:
This project was made possible through funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
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