Ottawa is commissioning more than $1 million in research to determine whether its National School Food Program actually delivers the benefits cabinet has claimed since launching the initiative, after admitting earlier figures were little more than educated guesses.Blacklock's Reporter says a briefing note from the Department of Social Development shows cabinet is spending $1 million on research through the Institutes of Health Research to identify the “impacts of school food programs,” with eight research teams assigned to the task. The Institutes have budgeted an additional $300,000, bringing the total cost to $1.3 million.“This funding will make sure school food programs are informed by research and real community needs,” the department said, acknowledging the need for evidence to support the $1 billion program.The National School Food Program was unveiled in 2024 with five-year funding of $1 billion. At the time, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau called it a “game changer,” claiming it would help 400,000 additional children get meals at school.But the numbers behind that claim have never been substantiated. .The program provides $200 million a year, an amount that works out to about $2.78 per day to feed 400,000 students over the roughly 180-day school year. Witnesses told Parliament that figure falls far short of real-world costs.“There are 180 school days,” Judith Barry, co-founder of The Breakfast Club, told the Senate national finance committee in 2024. “We would need billions.”Cabinet quietly conceded last fall that it did not have hard data to back its claims. An Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons on Nov. 18 said the 400,000-student estimate was based on incomplete information because the program was still in early implementation.“Final reporting from the provinces and territories is not yet complete,” the document said, adding that results for 2025 were not yet available. .When asked how many students had actually received meals through the program, officials replied that reporting requirements do not include that breakdown.The inquiry was tabled in response to questions from Conservative MP Matt Strauss, who asked how many meals had been funded since the program’s launch in 2024.The department’s briefing note says filling “key gaps in data and knowledge” is now considered critical to building an evidence-based program, but it does not say when — or if — the results of the research will be made public.“As the Government of Canada continues to implement the National School Food Program it is critical that data and research are available to support evidence based decision making,” the note said, explaining why cabinet is now spending $1 million on research after rolling out the program.
