COPACS News

Opportunities for building healthier school food environments in the Capital Region

 
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Opportunities for building healthier school food environments in the Capital Region
by Copacs Executive - Sunday, 7 November 2021, 5:33 PM
 

Hello,

We'd like to invite you to a short webinar presenting the findings from a recent study into school meal services in the Capital Region (study attached).

Wednesday, November 17 - 3:30-4:30.

Join us for engaging conversations around the possibilities for creating healthier school food environments across the CRD!

REGISTER HERE

About this event

Healthy school food environments are vital. Youth and Children consume ⅓ of their daily food at school everyday. The School Food Shift collaborative, an initiative of leading food organizations and health professionals in the Capital Region, has completed a study of food environments and food services in our region’s schools.

This study sought to understand:

  1. What strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats exist in the current school food landscape?
  2. What knowledge about this existing landscape might support the development of a regional approach to developing universal school meal programs in the Capital Region?
  3. How did school districts manage to prioritize food during the Covid pandemic and how did they reach out to (and collaborate with) the community to support that? Can this be replicated and/or scaled up?

Through interviews with 27 champions of school food programming, and additional data from conversations with 12 school administrators - the report provides insights into:

  • The existing need for food service in schools in our region;
  • Promising practices from the region and across Canada;
  • The diversity of food services provided in schools, currently;
  • Opportunities and challenges related to communicating about and developing school food programs;
  • Systems for supporting change, from local to National;
  • Impacts and lessons learned through the pandemic.

Join author Matthew Kemshaw and the School Food Shift Collaborative on November 17th at 3:30PM for an engaging conversation exploring the findings and opportunities of the “Healthy School Food Environments” 2021 report (attached) and engage in dialogue around the possibilities of creating healthier school food environments across the Capital Regional District.

The School Food Shift Collaborative is a group of organizations leading efforts at the community level in partnership with school, health and food production sectors to improve school food environments. School Food Shift is supported by the Good Food Network.