Coalition welcomes Prime Minister’s commitment to making the National School Food Program permanent

By: Debbie Field, National Coordinator, Coalition for Healthy School Food, and Carolyn Webb, Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator

We are delighted to share the great news that on Friday October 10, 2025, Prime Minister Carney announced that his government will introduce legislation to make the National School Food Program permanent. This announcement responds to a key recommendation the Coalition made in March 2025: to “pass legislation to embed school food in law, as Finland, Japan, Brazil, and many countries have done.” The Prime Minister also confirmed that, along with moving forward with legislation, his government will continue to fund the national Program beyond the Budget 2024 commitment of $1 billion over five years, which would have ended in 2029.

As the government’s release stated:

“With today’s announcement, the program will receive permanent funding of $216.6 million per year, starting in 2029–30.”

He also said in this CBC article:

“Canada’s new government will keep working with provinces, territories and Indigenous partners to expand school food programs in Canada, so even more kids can benefit.”

Listening to the press conference, one could hear the Prime Minister’s clarity and passion. He referred to school food as “an essential program and an essential service,” and emphasized that it must support “all children”.

You can read the Prime Minister of Canada’s announcement here and listen to the press conference here, where the PM speaks about the National School Food Program at minute 14:43, and answers a question about school food at minute 20:48.

We have much more to do over the next few months and years to:

• Work with the government on the specific language of the legislation;

• Ensure swift passage of the legislation in the House of Commons and all-party support for the legislation if possible;

• Continue advocating for the “Buy Canadian in the School Foods program” as promised in the Liberal 2025 Costing Plan (which was not mentioned during the news conference).
  

And, in the long term, we will need to advocate to expand the funding of the National School Food Program to align with the actual cost of healthy food, cost-of-living growth, evaluation findings, and emerging needs.

But for today, let’s take a moment to celebrate!