National School Food Program – 2025 to 2027 Action Plan – Manitoba

Note: This action plan has been re-formatted to meet accessibility requirements of Government of Canada webpages.

List of abbreviations
Section 1 - Introduction/overview
Section 2 - Implementation plan
Section 3 - Indicators, targets and expected results
Section 4 - Expenditures
Section 5 - Indigenous collaboration
Section 6 - Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs)
Section 7 - Reporting
Appendix A: National School Food Policy principles summary table
Appendix B: Common Reporting Indicators Table
Appendix C: Financial Summary Table

List of abbreviations

MEECL: Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
CNCM: Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba
DSFM: Division scolaire franco-manitobaine

Section 1 - Introduction/overview

In 2024 to 2025, Manitoba invested $30 million to create a Universal School Nutrition Program. A Universal School Nutrition Program means that food/beverages must be accessible to any student in any publicly funded school in a school division at no cost to the student, regardless of perceived need. Students must not face any barriers or stigma to participation in school nutrition programming. It is not expected that every public school will provide a specific meal to every student, every day. It is expected that every student can access food in their school during a school day, in a way that is barrier-free and stigma-free.

In its first year, Manitoba's Universal School Nutrition Program articulated a vision, laid the groundwork and provided the resources to develop robust nutrition programming in Manitoba's public schools. School divisions and schools developed nutrition programs according to their needs and capacities. We have learned more about what is needed and what is possible. Challenges have been identified and systems and processes to address them have been identified, planned, or put in place where possible.

In 2024 to 2025, funding from the National School Food Program allowed Manitoba to provide the extra needed resources for schools with higher socio-economic needs that had not been identified earlier but were brought to our attention by school divisions during the roll-out of the program. These 37 schools in 15 school divisions provided more robust school food programs to meet the needs of their students. In addition, the National School Food Program cost-shared with Manitoba to expand Harvest Manitoba's Meals2Go Program, to provide more students with nutritious weekend food kits in both Winnipeg and Brandon.

For the 2025 to 2026 school year, Manitoba again committed to invest $30 million for nutrition programming. With the expected $6.7 million contribution from the Government of Canada through the National School Food Program, nutrition program funding will total $36.7 million. This continued level of investment from both Manitoba and Canada is also anticipated for 2026 to 2027.

The program will continue to be delivered through the following three different streams of funding.

$18 million directly to Manitoba's 37 school divisions

The $18 million allocated directly to school divisions is based on a formula that considers divisional enrolment, socioeconomic factors and geographic location. School divisions will be given autonomy to allocate their portion of the $18 million to best meet the needs of their local schools and communities. They submitted plans for approval using a set of guiding principles and expenditure categories (food, staffing, equipment/infrastructure) developed by the Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning (MEECL) Department.

Guiding Principles:

leverage existing partnerships
new funding is to improve accessibility and quality of school nutrition programs, not replace it
be barrier-free/stigma-free
meets the needs of individual schools/communities, and dedicated funding for schools with the highest socioeconomic need must be targeted to those schools
provide food that follows Canada's nutritional guidelines for school nutrition programs
consider and accommodate food allergies/cultural dietary needs to ensure accessibility
explore local food options and develop partnerships with nearby suppliers
respect public health guidelines, including requirements for food handling

$4 million to schools in communities with higher socioeconomic needs

Manitoba has allocated $4 million to schools across the province with higher socioeconomic needs. An additional $5.9 million will be allocated from the National School Food Program for this stream. In 2024 to 2025, public health requirements restricted the ability of many schools to prepare and serve food until they made investments in infrastructure, such as commercial dishwashers and stainless-steel counters. These costs have been significant, and extra support is required particularly for those schools with higher socio-economic needs who are expected to provide robust nutrition programming, including breakfast, lunch and snack options. In 2025 to 2026 and 2026 to 2027, school divisions will be responsible to identify the schools that require extra support and allocate sufficient resources to provide more robust nutrition programming.

$8 million in grants to community partners

Manitoba will also provide approximately $8 million in funding to community partners to ensure Manitoba students have access to food throughout the school day and beyond.

The Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba (CNCM) is a charitable organization that provides application-based nourishment grant funding for meal and snack programs to schools in urban, rural, and northern communities throughout Manitoba. CNCM also employs registered dietitians who provide nutrition education resources to support all aspects of organizing and running a program, and opportunities for networking and information sharing across participating schools. CNCM will receive a total of $4.9 million annually in both 2025 to 2026 and 2026 to 2027 to provide grants and educational resources to schools.

Community organizations that provide after school, summer, and school break programs will also receive grants to provide meals and snacks to students during their programming outside of school hours. Approximately 33 organizations will receive a total of approximately $2.3 million under this program in 2025 to 2026.

Harvest Manitoba is a not-for-profit organization, the fourth largest food distributer in Canada, and the only provincial food network in Manitoba. With grant funding in 2025 to 2026, Harvest Manitoba will continue to expand its Meals2Go program in Winnipeg, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and Brandon as well as an additional program in Thompson. Meals2Go is a weekend breakfast program that provides students with a nutritious take-home food kit to ensure they have access to food over the weekend. Manitoba plans to provide $926,290 annually to Harvest Manitoba in 2025 to 2026, and 2026 to 2027.

In 2023 to 2024, prior to the implementation of the Universal School Nutrition Program:

509 public schools in Manitoba, approximately 73% of all schools, offered at least one nutrition program
of the 509 schools, 368 offered more than one nutrition program
total of 61,773 pupils participated daily in at least one nutrition program, comprising approximately 32% of the total provincial enrolment for 2023/2024
the most common nutrition programs offered by the schools were Snack (429 schools) and Breakfast (352 schools)

Section 2 - Implementation plan

Manitoba will allocate $6,715,476 in federal funding as follows:

Harvest Manitoba: $774,323
Creation of new and expansion of existing school nutrition programs: $5,941,153

Harvest Manitoba

Harvest Manitoba is the fourth largest food distributer in Canada and the only provincial food network in Manitoba. They collect and distribute nutritious food to more than 90,000 Manitobans in need per month. Harvest Manitoba has a long history of supporting Manitoba families with acquiring nutritious food and has demonstrated its ability to work with school divisions and other organizations to deliver healthy food to families with school-aged children.

The Meals2Go program provides students in need with a nutritious kit of food to take home every weekend to address food insecurity after school hours. Each kit contains nutritious items such as cereals, yogurt, milk, and fresh fruit.

Meals2Go currently serves 5,000 students and their families throughout Manitoba. With an investment of $1,700,613 in 2025 to 2026, Harvest Manitoba will expand their Meals2Go programming to Thompson and reach 7,000 students and their families. Manitoba will cost share this initiative with Canada.

Creation of new/expansion of existing school nutrition programs

Manitoba will allocate the remaining $5,941,153 to create new, and enhance existing, school nutrition programs. Although Manitoba will invest $30 million for school food programs in 2025 to 2026, the need continues to exceed this investment. Federal funds will allow schools with higher needs to provide food to more students and to offer additional meals beyond what they currently offer.

Manitoba will allocate this funding to school divisions based on quantitative data regarding enrolment, socioeconomic factors and the cost of food based on geographic location. School divisions will identify the schools that require extra support and allocate sufficient resources to provide more robust nutrition programming, including breakfast, snack and lunch options. School division plans are submitted to Manitoba by June 30 and are subsequently reviewed and approved by department staff. Staff ensure school divisions have identified which schools will receive National School Food Program funds, that all funds are accounted for in the plans, and that robust school food programming is offered in the schools being funded through the federal program. School divisions will be allowed to allocate a portion of their nutrition funding to hire staff for nutrition programs and/or for infrastructure upgrades to school kitchens to meet public health requirements. Projected budgets for staffing and infrastructure are also included in the school division plans.

Manitoba committed $4 million to 26 school divisions who have allocated these funds to 60 schools with higher socioeconomic needs. Federal funding will be allocated to an additional 71 schools with higher socioeconomic needs in 20 school divisions to enhance and/or create new nutrition programming. Depending on the needs at each school, this will involve a range of enhancements, including offering more meal programs, serving more students, providing more food, and offering more nutritious food choices.

Schools are required to meet the Guiding Principles of Manitoba's Universal School Nutrition Program described in Section 1, which are also reflected in the National School Food Program's 6 principles:

1. Accessibility

Definition: Children and youth can participate in school food programs without stigma or barriers

Action: Public schools in Manitoba's program are required to provide food at no cost, and to be barrier and stigma-free
2. Health promoting

Definition: Food served is consistent with healthy eating recommendations in Canada's Food Guide, and children and youth are supported in developing healthful food-related behaviours and attitudes, as well as food and nutrition knowledge and skills

Action: Public schools in Manitoba's program are required to provide food that follows Canada's nutritional guidelines for school nutrition programs. A working group has been established to review and update Manitoba's School Nutrition Guidelines (2014) with Public Population & Public Health, Manitoba Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care and MEECL.
3. Inclusive

Definition: Children and youth have access to culturally appropriate, relevant, and inclusive school food programs that engage students and the broader community, with specific engagement and consultation with Indigenous peoples and Official Language Minority Communities.

Action: Public schools in Manitoba's program are required to consider and accommodate food allergies/cultural dietary needs to ensure accessibility.
4. Flexible

Definition: Food is locally sourced where possible and reflective of local and regional circumstances.

Action: Public schools in Manitoba's program are required to explore local food options and develop partnerships with nearby suppliers when possible. For example, Rolling River School Division works with Heritage Co-op on sourcing their school food programs. In addition to sourcing food from approved suppliers under tendered contracts, Winnipeg School Division has informal untendered agreements with local caterers and ingredient suppliers with direct-buy relationships that can be accessed at the school- level. A number of school divisions order food through the wholesale food distribution company, Sysco. Louis Riel School Division purchases local food options for their meal programs through Sysco, such as tortilla chips from La Cocina Foods located in Ste. Anne, Manitoba, and pierogies from Perfect Pierogies located in Garson, Manitoba. In addition, Louis Riel School Division orders directly from Happy Dance Hummus, located in East St. Paul, Manitoba and Mitosh, an Indigenous-owned company located on Treaty 8 territory in Alberta from whom they order dry meat (known as Pânsâwân, traditionally smoked meat) and pemmican strips made from grass-fed Alberta bison, berries, maple syrup, and sea salt.
5. Accountable

Definition: Consistent and transparent monitoring and evaluation to ensure the programs are achieving policy objectives.

Action: Public school divisions are required to submit a report to Manitoba in July of each year.
6. Sustainable

Definition: Programs are designed to be environmentally sustainable and adequately resourced.

Action: A program evaluation will assess issues around resource levels and environmental sustainability, and make recommendations in this regard.

A comprehensive program evaluation of the Universal School Nutrition Program will be undertaken in 2025 to identify program accomplishments, strengths, and challenges, and will make recommendations for program enhancements and improvements. The final report is expected in spring 2026.

In 2026 to 2027 (Year 3), Manitoba will continue the investments and activities as described above for Year 2.

See Appendix A for a detailed breakdown of activities.

Section 3 - Indicators, targets and expected results

Manitoba has developed reporting templates for school divisions to report on the following data for school nutrition programming, and these will include the schools being funded by Canada:

number of schools, number of students
number of schools with existing school food programs (name of school and postal code), number of children participating
number of schools with new school food programs (name of school and postal code), number of children participating
number of schools with expanded and/or enhanced school food programs (name of school and postal code), number of children participating
types of school food program (for example, snack, breakfast, lunch, other), and number of each served to students
number of schools offering school food programs that accommodate diverse dietary needs (such as allergy-safe, gluten-free, lactose-free, halal, kosher, vegetarian, etc.)
infrastructure supporting school food programming (for example, programming coordinators, safe food storage capacity, meal preparation equipment)

School Divisions will provide reports to Manitoba in July of each year. Manitoba will provide final reports to Canada for each year by October 1 with information on the indicators outlined above and in Appendix B.

Section 4 - Expenditures

2025 to 2026 Expenditures will include:

Funding for Harvest Manitoba - Cost shared with the Government of Manitoba

Government of Canada Funding

Food Kits: $688,823
Transportation, supplies and admin: $75,000
Capital (truck): $10,500

Total: $774,323 to reach 3,500 students

Government of Manitoba Funding

Food Kits: $730,790
Transportation, supplies and admin: $75,000
Capital (truck): $10,500
Capital (cooler expansion) $110,000

Total: $926,290 to reach 3,660 students

Combined total for Harvest Manitoba: $1,700,613 to reach approximately 7,000 students.

Funding for creation/expansion of school nutrition programs in high needs schools

$5,941,153 to include food, equipment and staffing for nutrition programs in 71 schools with higher socioeconomic needs selected by school divisions and identified in their annual nutrition plans submitted to Manitoba, which are reviewed and approved by department staff.

See Appendix C for a financial summary.

2026 to 2027 Expenditures will include:

Funding for Harvest Manitoba – Cost shared with the Government of Manitoba

Government of Canada Funding

Food Kits: $688,823
Transportation, supplies and admin: $75,000
Capital (truck): $10,500

Total: $774,323

Government of Manitoba Funding

Food Kits: $820,790
Transportation, supplies and admin: $95,000
Capital (truck): $10,500

Total: $926,290

Combined total for Harvest Manitoba: $1,700,613

Funding for creation/expansion of school nutrition programs in high needs schools

$5,941,153 to include food, equipment and staffing for nutrition programs in high need schools selected by school divisions and identified in their annual nutrition plans submitted to Manitoba, which are reviewed and approved by department staff. Number of schools and exact amounts in each category to be provided to Canada by June 30, 2026 (based on school division plans submitted to Manitoba for the 2026 to 2027 school year).

2026 to 2027 expenditures are based on notional funding amounts, subject to annual adjustment as per the Canada-Manitoba National School Food Program Agreement 2024-2027.

See Appendix C for a financial summary.

Section 5 - Indigenous collaboration

In Manitoba, school nutrition programming is the responsibility of the Indigenous Excellence in Education Division, MEECL. Indigenous Excellence works in partnership with Indigenous leadership and organizations in Manitoba, including First Nations and Métis partners.

The Manitoba Universal School Nutrition Program for publicly-funded schools includes First Nations schools under an educational agreement with a publicly-funded school division.

Indigenous Excellence in Education has engaged with the provincial departments of Health and Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures regarding public health and wildlife regulations to identify ways to support the continued development of land-based learning and the incorporation of harvested wild meat into schools' cultural and nutrition programs. Indigenous Excellence is also planning to develop a Land-Based Learning Framework that will support this work.

Section 6 - Official language minority communities (OLMCs)

The Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (DSFM) manages French-language schools in Manitoba. It has 24 schools and an adult learning center. It is the only school division to offer the French first language program, from kindergarten to grade 12. Students who do not live in a DSFM school catchment area are bussed to a DSFM school free of charge if they wish to attend a French-language school. DSFM will receive $668,000 through Manitoba's Universal School Nutrition Program for 2025 to 2026. In addition, DSFM will be allocated $152,753 from the National School Food Program for schools with higher socio-economic needs. DSFM is expected to receive provincial and federal funding for schools with higher socio-economic needs in 2026 to 2027 as well.

Socioeconomic indicators are not always accurate for DSFM schools as students can be bussed from other divisions, especially in Winnipeg. DSFM will determine which schools will require extra resources to meet higher socioeconomic needs through the National School Food Program. For 2025 to 2026, DSFM has selected École Précieux-Sang, a K-8 school with 544 students, to receive federal funding to provide a lunch and a snack program for students.

Section 7 - Reporting

Manitoba will provide Canada with an annual report and audited financial statement as well as data and reporting for the National School Food Program funding on indicators as above in Section 3 and Appendix B by October 1, 2026 and October 1, 2027. This will include narrative descriptions of the activities, results, and consultation processes.

Manitoba commits to work together with Canada to improve data collection and dissemination on key school food indicators, including exploring the collection of outcomes-based indicators to measure the broader impact of school food programming on areas such as academic performance, attendance rates, and mental or physical well-being.