#SpeakUp News - July 2025

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July 2025

Welcome to the Summer 2025 Edition of #SpeakUp! News.

These newsletters are published by the NS Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food approximately 3-4 times per year. They provide updates on school food advocacy in Nova Scotia and share opportunities for subscribers to advocate for school food at various levels of government.

This edition focuses on how Nova Scotians can participate in the national Coalition for School Food's new campaign to sustain and enhance programs here and throughout the country.

Discover the campaign

Take Action: Be a Champion for School Food

Let’s keep the momentum going!

The National School Food Program officially launched in April 2024. Now, we need your help to make sure it becomes permanent and grows sustainably and equitably in every province and territory.

Nova Scotia is currently leading the country in provincial/territorial school food investment, but we need ongoing support from the federal government to sustain and enhance our programs.

According to the recently released bilateral agreement, Nova Scotia’s share of current federal investment is $12,390,967 over three years.

This federal funding is being used to:

Help fund the universal breakfast program ($800k this year)

Develop and test new and refined recipes ($200k this year)

Hire school food program leads ($150k this year)

Properly equip school kitchens ($1.18M this year)

Support project management and administration ($700k this year)

As part of the Coalition’s #NourishKidsNow campaign, we’re inviting all Nova Scotia teachers, parents, Coalition members, endorsers, and supporters to send a letter to your local MP as part of our latest national campaign: Be a Champion for School Food!

Why It Matters

🧡 1 in 3 children and youth benefit from school food — but many are still left out
📣 A short letter keeps school food on the federal agenda
🔁 New MPs mean new opportunities to build lasting programs for all

How it Works

Find your MP

Pick a Template — Choose your role: Parent, Teacher, Member/Endorser/Supporters

Personalize — Add your name, riding, and why school food matters to you

Send Your Letter — By email, by mail or even drop it off at your MP’s office and say hello to their staff!

Get started today by using one of our templates!

Member/Endorser/Supporter Letter Template

Tip: Copy and paste this into the second paragraph to provide NS-specific information about the provincial funding landscape: “Nova Scotia has shown great leadership in supporting student nutrition, with the province now leading Canada at $3.30 per student per day. To grow this success, we need stable and increased federal, provincial, and municipal funding.”

Parent Letter Template

Teacher Letter Template

Check out the example letter below to get inspired!

Take a look at the letter from Chris Peacock, Executive Director of The Sharing Place Food Centre in Ontario. This is a real example of how community leaders are speaking up for stronger school food programs.

💡 Add a local story, express hope, and invite your MP to be a champion for school food!

Thank you for being part of this movement.

Together, we’re building a future where every child and youth in Canada can count on nourishing food at school — every day.

The Great Big Crunch

Thank You for Making the 2025 Great Big Crunch a Huge Success! 🍎

From February through April, over 151,000 people, including 8,055 Nova Scotians joined the Crunch. 31,000 participants from coast to coast to coast gathered on March 6th for the Virtual Great Big Crunch, a national moment to celebrate school food and call for a universal, sustainably funded National School Food Program.

We were honoured to be joined by the Honourable Brendan Maguire, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, who shared a few words to recognize the many people who contribute to making school food programs a success and affirmed his goal for Nova Scotia to continue to lead the country and for Canada to lead the world in this important work!

A special shout-out to the students and educators at New Glasgow Academy in Nova Scotia for their incredible Crunch spirit!

Thank you for raising your voices and your apples, bananas, and other fruits & vegetables to build strong school food programs in every province and territory.

New Glasgow Academy students participating in the 2025 Great Big Crunch.

Building Momentum: More Investments in School Food in Canada

The Coalition for Healthy School Food has released new data showing that as of the 2025–26 school year, provinces, territories, and municipalities are collectively investing $401 million per year in school food—an increase of over $115 million from last year.

The Nova Scotia government announced an additional $61.3 million in Budget 2025 to expand their pay-what-you-can lunch program to an additional 77 middle and junior high schools. This brings the total lunch program budget to $80 million annually, with an additional $1.7 million/year allocated to breakfast programs. Nova Scotia is now the highest PT contributor per capita, investing $3.30 per student per day in school meals.

This growing investment helps strengthen social safety nets, ease financial pressures on families, and improve learning, health, and wellbeing for children and youth.

Read the full update here.

If you'd like some “light summer reading”, all the bilateral agreements for the National School Food Program have been published! You can see Nova Scotia's here Canada – Nova Scotia National School Food Program Agreement 2024 to 2027 - Canada.ca

Nourish Nova Scotia hosts and coordinates the activities of the NS-CHSF.

Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for future campaign resources and updates by visiting nourishns.ca/subscribe-speakup

To learn more or get involved:

nourishns.ca/coalition-for-healthy-school-food/

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