Imagine you wake up, get ready and head off to school. When you get there you go directly to class, your teacher teaches you, who knows what, because you find it difficult to focus on the lessons and activities because your stomach hurts. It is growling and knotted because you haven't had anything in it since last night. At lunch you go to the office and ask for something to eat for lunch all they can provide you is a granola bar, apple and cheese string. This is better than nothing but still not enough to take away your hunger. You finish the school day, go home and head straight to your room where you take a nap just to pass the time and not think about how hungry you are. Your mom comes up to wake you up and tell you dinner is ready. Dinner is macaroni with pasta sauce and canned peas. Nothing spectacular but it's still dinner. Tonight though there is enough for a second bowl.
This is a heartbreaking reality of "1 in 3 Canadian Children" (Food Banks Canada, 2023). No child should ever have to experience this. Children should never have to worry about their next meal and they should also never have to worry about the quality of their next meal. Quantity sometimes out weighs quality when you're hungry, but quality will always be better for us in the long run. We often overlook the quality of the food we provide to our students in favour of cost. "Depending on where Canadians live, they may pay more than double to almost six times more for healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables or whole grains" (CBC News, 2009). Some schools in Ontario have cafeterias, but the options of healthy foods are limited. The main options are french fries, chicken burgers, pizza and mac and cheese. These options are high calorie, low nutrition foods, sold for a high cost. For example 1 Chicken Burger in a local high school cafeteria costs $5. That doesn't include any side with it. If students are food insecure chances are they are also living in poverty so purchasing food from the cafeteria is not an option. Ontario schools have options to help these students such as Eat Well to Excel, Breakfast Club of Canada, Student Nutrition Ontario, etc. but often the funding isn't enough.
If you can, please help out your local school, find out if they have an open donation fund or use any of the following links to help feed school children in Ontario.
https://groceryfoundation.com/pages/toonies-for-tummies
https://www.breakfastclubcanada.org/
https://studentnutritionontario.ca/
https://foodbankscanada.ca/how-you-can-help/
References:
Food Banks Canada. (2023). Hunger in Canada. https://foodbankscanada.ca/hunger-in-canada/
CBC News. (2009). Canadians pay wide range of prices for healthy foods: report. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/canadians-pay-wide-range-of-prices-for-healthy-foods-report-1.832326
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