Introduction
Globally, primary and secondary school nutrition programs continue to gain recognition due to their meaningful role in the global school system. Providing schoolchildren with needed nutrients significantly impacts their cognitive growth and development. The impact of school nutrition programs goes beyond the daily meals provided to schoolchildren; it contributes to their long-term health, economic status, and educational outcomes.
In Manitoba, the provincial government is aiming to scale up its current school nutrition initiative to make the program more accessible. In addition, colonial legacies which gravely impact Indigenous students’ educational performance, studies demonstrate Indigenous students from low-income households tend to perform poorly in school, which has been connected to the absence of a balanced diet. School nutrition programs help improve students’ academic performance and have a long-term impact on other critical areas such as nutrition, health, education, gender equality, self-determination, and economic growth.
Origins of School Nutrition Programs
The introduction of school nutrition programs can be traced to the 1870s, after elementary education became compulsory in the United Kingdom with the passage of the “Elementary Education Act 1870,” also known as the Forster’s Education Act. This act compelled every family, including low-income families, to enroll their children in primary education. Subsequently, many elementary schoolchildren went to school unfed or undernourished, and therefore could not benefit from the teachings. Recognizing this issue, British parliament passed the Education (Provision of Meals) Act in 1906, allowing local education authorities to provide free meals to undernourished elementary schoolchildren, aged 3-11.
The Importance of School Nutrition Programs
According to the World Food Program (WFP), approximately 310 million schoolchildren worldwide benefit from school nutrition programs daily. Many countries have adopted school nutrition programs and developed national policies toward implementation – evidence suggests programs have helped increase student learning outcomes by demonstrating increased enrolment, retention, and promotion rates. In Canada, due to the absence of a national school nutrition policy, schools rely on non-sustainable sources such as charities, community groups, the private sector, or volunteer supports to run needed school nutrition programs.
Given the recent rise of inflation and increase in food and grocery prices, charities and school administrators in Canada currently face growing post-pandemic challenges to run or maintain school nutrition programs effectively. The Breakfast Club of Canada, a national program which provides healthy meals to over 500,000 schoolchildren, decried the increase in grocery prices. The challenge of coping with these increases extends to the Coalition for Healthy School Food, a national group of non-profit organizations working to increase students’ access to nutritious school meals in the city of Toronto. The Coalition stresses the need for increased support for school nutrition programs nationally. The Ottawa Network for Education also emphasized the need for increased support for school nutrition programs. Due to limited funding, the Ottawa Network for Education has noted challenges accommodating new schools into those they already regularly service, which has increased exponentially since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the return to in-person school.
Case Study: School Nutrition Programs in Africa and Canada
School nutrition programs have positively impacted student enrolment, retention, completion, and reducing absenteeism and dropout rates in primary and secondary schools. In Tanzania, for example, such programs have helped increase primary and secondary students’ enrolment, retention, promotion, and graduation rates.
Studies in Africa reveal specific outcomes relating to increased girls’ enrolment and retention following the introduction of school nutrition programs. In low-income communities in Tanzania, school nutrition programs have helped reduce the generational sociocultural norm or perception that considers girls’ education as less important than that of their male counterparts. Parents who practice this sociocultural stereotype are motivated to enroll their girls in schools that offer onsite or take-home rations. Take-home rations benefit not only young school-aged girls, but also their parents and immediate families.
The success of Tanzania’s school nutrition programs in low-income communities resulted in the creation and launch of the country’s first national school feeding or nutrition guidelines in November 2021. The policy outlines school nutrition program responsibilities among stakeholders and mobilizes community ownership and local contributions.
In the Yukon, the Yukon First Nations Education Directorate recently introduced a school nutrition program in the Yukon school system specifically for Indigenous children aged 0-18. A Jordan’s Principle funded initiative, the program not only provides nutritious meals to address food insecurity but has been noted as contributing immensely to increased learning and educational development for Indigenous children in the Yukon.
The program has two focuses, rural and urban, and includes breakfast, lunch, and occasional snacks for schoolchildren. The program has other features, such as winter break food hampers and family feast programs, that are innovatively incorporated. These separate components ensure the program benefits parents and other members of food-insure households.
With an Indigenous focus, the program includes specific traditional practices such as seasonal harvesting, food preservation, and meal preparation which helps to enrich the program culturally. However, while the program is making remarkable progress, it faces funding challenges which has resulted in a reliance on caterers, community centres for food preparation due to a lack of a permanent space for operations, and transportation challenges. However, amidst a challenging landscape of unstable funding, the Yukon program has demonstrated numerous social and economic impacts on the lives of the schoolchildren they support. The program helps fill the nutritional gap that exists in many homes where schoolchildren are not receiving adequate nutrition. Research shows that Canadian school nutrition programs provide meals with a higher nutritious quality than meals provided in many homes.
Conclusion
Globally, school nutrition programs play a pivotal role in keeping schoolchildren healthy while providing them with the needed nutrition which enables them to remain in school and achieve positive learning outcomes. Students from low-income or food insecure households not only receive nutrition from balanced school nutrition programs, but such programs provide stability and security.
In addition to nutritious food providing physical sustenance to children, nutrition programs improve health by helping to avert diet-related chronic diseases and support improved mental health. Studies demonstrate providing a healthy school diet increases students enrolment, attendance, and improves overall learning outcomes. Innovative Indigenous-focused school nutrition programs not only provide nutritious meals for schoolchildren but also teach essential Indigenous and culturally-specific skills for food preparation, healthy eating, and food preferences. Nutrition programs in Canadian schools have positive outcomes for academic achievement, increased attendance, reduced tardiness, and lowered dropout rates.