As we enter April, I want to look back and reflect on Nutrition Month™, which saw Nourish bring food literacy programming to more than 400 young people and connect over food with families at community spaces.
If you follow Nourish on social media, you’ll have seen posts based on submissions by youth reflecting on their relationship with food. That was also a theme of an online discussion we hosted with young food leaders. One panelist shared memories of their food-insecure childhood, marked by comments from classmates like “Where’s the rest of your lunch?”
Yet the federal budget neither mentioned nor funded school food. We join members of the Coalition for Healthy School Food across Canada in disappointment and resolution to continue advocating.
Nourish – and more than 80 donors! – made a small difference in March as $40,000 from the Nova Scotia School Food Fund was distributed to our public school partners. In January, the Nova Scotia government allocated an unexpected $2 million to school food budgets, and so this spring Nourish is focused on supporting capacity, including through professional development with cafeteria workers and working with community groups supporting food access at schools.
As always, we are grateful for supporters including those who will lace up for the Bluenose and our crucial monthly donors.
Happy Spring!
