School food programs hope $1B from Ottawa will fill need as they wait for governments to sign on

By 8 a.m. — as most people begin weekday morning routines or sit down for breakfast — Debbie Marshall's already got pots heating on the stove and meat thawing, and is prepping fruit and veggies. Every morning, from an apartment-sized school kitchen in St. John's, she whips up healthy, hot lunches daily for anywhere from 140 to 200 elementary students.

A head cook and server for Newfoundland and Labrador's School Lunch Association (SLA) who started out as a volunteer nearly 20 years ago when her kids were in kindergarten, Marshall knows the value of every tray of mac and cheese, pancakes, goulash or lasagna that she and her student helpers serve up during the 45-minute lunch rush.

"In Newfoundland, we're a rich province, but in another way, we're a poor province. We have a lot of people here struggling.... So at least when [kids] come in, the parents know their children are getting their lunches each and every day," Marshall said.

"They always know if they need a little bit extra, they can come to me," she said. "If a child hasn't got a full belly, they're not going to be able to learn in school."

Six months after the federal government unveiled $1 billion to fund Canada's first national school food program and a month after the first jurisdiction — Newfoundland and Labrador — officially signed on, CBC News checked in with food providers about what they're facing this school year.

Serving more than 6,700 meals daily in 43 schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, the long-running SLA operates on a pay-what-you-can model that's since been emulated by neighbouring provinces. Families opt to pay fully for their children's participation, a partial fee or nothing at all if money is tight.

Financial support from the provincial government, individual and corporate donors and fundraisers has helped cover the difference, but in recent years that gap has widened, said SLA executive director John Finn.

"With the amount of families' ability to pay decreasing and the cost of food increasing, it was a bit of a double-edged sword," he said.

The SLA has a solid waitlist of schools that want to sign on, but expansion has been held back, Finn said. The province's more than 250 schools are spread out across a wide geographic area (including many rural and remote regions), and aging or missing infrastructure — think 50-year-old cafeteria kitchens with out-of-date ventilation or lacking commercial refrigeration — require attention first.

School food providers await details of just how Newfoundland's $9.1 million in federal funding over three years will be distributed, but the SLA and its peers have already been advising provincial authorities on where help is needed most.

"[We're] looking at high socioeconomic needs, areas where there is a huge demand for a program, in which perhaps there was no other food provider in schools," Finn said, noting that across Canada, many providers have left because it's no longer financially sustainable to operate.

"It's tremendous and great news that the federal government and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador have signed the historic first agreement for a national school food program. But a program such as ours is only going to be sustainable as long as families and others continue to contribute toward it."

Although British Columbia hasn't yet signed an agreement to receive the federal funding, the province's $214-million pledge over three years to support school food is moving through the system. Provincial funding made up half of Nourish Cowichan's $1.2-million budget, said Fatima Da Silva, co-founder and executive director.

"I cannot tell you have much pressure it has taken off our shoulders," she said.