Lots of chomping and crunching of fresh, healthy food in schools across Windsor-Essex to highlight the importance of nutritious food choices and a national school food program.
In schools across the region, the province, and the country on Thursday, students took part in The Great Big Crunch by taking a bite out of an apple to create a loud crunch at the designated time in order to call attention to its goal.
The federal government committed $1 billion in the 2024 budget to create a new National School Food Program, which will support existing provincial and territorial programs, but it has yet to be fully implemented.
Ontario has the Student Nutrition Program, which offers school-age children and youth nutritious food through breakfast, lunch, and snack programs.
Supervisor of Community Relations with the Ontario Student Nutrition Program, Danielle Findlay, says this is all about coming together in unity to show support for funding for school food programs.
Findlay says they want to get kids back to eating healthy.
"There are things that we're seeing in school-aged children, like chronic illnesses associated with poor diets that typically we haven't seen previously that have been on the rise. It's really important not just to nourish their minds but also to nourish their bodies," she says.
Hundreds of kids took part in The Great Big Crunch at W.J. Langlois Catholic Elementary School on Rivard Avenue in Windsor.
Students at W.J. Langlois Catholic Elementary School in Windsor enjoy some apples as part of The Great Big Crunch to promote nutrition and funding for a national school food program. ?@AM800CKLW? ?@WECDSB? pic.twitter.com/ZQq7KrX52E
— Rusty Thomson (@RustyThomson800) March 6, 2025
Findlay says school food programs are important.
"We're wanting to take that great big crunch and make that noise heard so policymakers and everyone can really come on out and understand that everyone is behind this cause," she says. "That this is something we really need to have deeply rooted to ensure that kids remain a priority and that we continue to invest in children and youth and their health."
Findlay says they know that food insecurity is on the rise and that 1 in 3 food bank users are children.
"When they're hungry, they can't concentrate at school, and so on top of that, these programs contribute to positive attendance rates and help mitigate behaviours as well. We know that when programs cannot operate in schools, in many cases, there are negative connotations associated with that, so we have to keep the funding going for those reasons," she says.
According to the Coalition for Healthy School Food, about one-quarter of children's calorie intakes are from food products not recommended in Canada's Food Guide.
The coalition also says that one-third of students in elementary schools and two-thirds of students in secondary schools do not eat a nutritious breakfast before school.
