On August 15, 2018 Canadian Senator Art Eggleton, US School Food Expert and Activist Jan Poppendiek, City Councillor Joe Mihevc, members of the Coalition for Healthy School Food and others involved in the student nutrition movement got together at a meeting hosted by the Ryerson University Centre for Studies in Food Security to plan activities to support Senator Eggleton’s Senate Motion #358 calling for a National Nutrition Program for Children and Youth.
After the meeting, Amberley Ruetz and Dr. Sara Kirk, two Coalition for Healthy School Food supporters, published a great article on this issue (see the links below), which, in just two weeks since publication, has garnered over 13,500 reads and has been reprinted several times. This issue has generated interest across Canada and internationally, with Dr. Kirk and Coalition for Healthy School Coordinator Debbie Field participating in 26 CBC morning radio show interviews across Canada, from Victoria to Whitehorse to Gander, as students were returning for the new academic year.
Such interest is heartening, meaning that momentum is building. Over the next few months the Coalition for Healthy School Food will be developing a national petition and visiting MPs (see Amberley’s site for a great example of a letter you can send to your MP to let them know how important this issue is to us all).
Get in touch with us, if you want to Say Yes to a National School Food Program. Make sure to sign our petition and share it widely – together we can make a national school food program happen!
Read more about the need for a National School Food Program and how to make one happen (September 2018 media coverage):
Listen to September 2018 interviews: