Ontario School Food Programs - Strengthening Relationships and Envisioning the Future

By: Heather Thoma, Provincial Animator, Ontario Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food

June 11th, 2025 marked the end of a collaborative Ontario school food visioning process. Hosted by the Ontario Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, the visioning took place over 3 months and engaged the diverse network of organizations, agencies, and individuals that support and implement school food programs in the province. Visioning participants offered their input and ideas through a series of meetings and surveys to collectively assess the current state of school food and envision what Ontario could achieve in the future. 

The recent National School Food Program and Policy for Canada means that provinces and territories are looking to expand and enhance their programs to provide more children and youth with nutritious meals and snacks. Provinces, territories, and municipalities are also increasingly investing in school food programs, with over $400M invested annually across the country. Amidst this context, the Ontario visioning process provided an opportunity to explore how provincial school food programs can be better resourced and strengthened, and how partners can work together to advance school food in the province.

Over 145 people brought their voices, visions, and expertise from across ten sectors to participate in the Ontario visioning process, including: Student Nutrition Ontario lead agencies and community partner organizations, First Nations Student Nutrition Programs, public health, school boards, food producers and distributors, researchers, food literacy, food banks, and community food security non-profits, and more. Our comprehensive Mural Board space provides a snapshot of the valuable feedback that was collected.

During the process visioning participants:

• Shared their ideas for a long-term vision for school food in Ontario 

• Collaborated in mapping out a picture of the current school food ecosystem

• Identified opportunities, gaps, and assets within the ecosystem

• Articulated short, medium, long-term, and system-level collaborative actions and solutions 

• Proposed the formation of an Ontario School Food Working Group to support further conversations and cross-sectoral action relating to priorities emerging from the visioning

For a full overview of the visioning process and goals, click here.

As next steps, we will be finalizing the collective vision and writing a report to detail the policy recommendations and actions discussed in the process. We plan to share the report with Ontario decision-makers this fall. 

The Ontario Chapter will also be working on setting up the Ontario School Food Working Group to provide a mechanism for school food partners to work together on shared system-level solutions and advance priority actions. This Working Group will aim to build stronger cross-sector collaboration, communication, and coordination among those connected to school food programs in Ontario.  

For more information reach out to Heather Thoma, Provincial Animator for the Ontario Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food at heather@sustainontario.com.