Creating Healthy School Food Environments for BC Students
Welcome to the BC School Food Toolkit
The health of our children and youth is a collective responsibility. Creating a supportive food environment in schools allows students to eat well and helps them develop a positive relationship with food thus contributing to their health. A “healthy school food environment” refers not only to the nutritional value of the food served at school, but the ways in which schools create a culture of care and connection around how food is prepared, served, and eaten. It includes having safe spaces, as well as adequate time to eat and connect with friends.
Creating a healthy school food environment requires patience, persistence, creativity and can foster a positive shift in school food culture. Many schools across the province are already demonstrating that students enjoy nutritious food choices when offered in a supportive and caring way.
The BC School Food Toolkit is a website that was developed to support schools in creating and maintaining healthy school food environments. It includes guidance to support schools in their efforts to provide nutritious foods for students through their Feeding Futures programs.
The BC School Food Toolkit:
- is designed for those who are responsible for making meal planning and food purchasing decisions on behalf of a school food program.
- provides guidance on nutrition to help determine the types of foods offered, sold, or served to students within school food programs.
- offers resources and suggestions to help school food programs:
- meet the nutrition and diverse food needs of students,
- support students in developing a positive relationship with food, and
- foster an inclusive school food environment
- is voluntary, and
- is intended to support schools/districts to make smalls shifts when and where possible.
The strategies and recipes outlined in the toolkit will support your school’s healthy eating journey, while providing flexible options that acknowledge each school’s unique needs and operational circumstances.
For information on how to start or grow a school food program, please visit the Build a School Food Program website.
To learn more about the work under way in the province to increase B.C. foods in schools, visit: Feed BC in K-12 schools.
The Toolkit is not intended for use as:
- a guide for food and beverages brought from home as part of student lunches,
- a classroom resource to teach children about food and nutrition. For tools and resources to support food and nutrition education in the classroom, please visit www.teachfoodfirst.ca.
BC School Food Toolkit sections include:
- General Nutrition Information: provides general meal planning tips and lists of ideas of food and beverages to Serve Frequently, as well as those suggested to Serve Infrequently.
- School Food Programs: Provides 4 week menu plans and food and beverage ideas for 3 different models of programs: Grab N’Go, Assemble-and-Serve and Cooked-from-Scratch.
- Tips for Feeding Kids: Sections include information on how to create a healthy school food environment such as how adults in schools can support a positive relationship with food and ideas to gradually shift towards offering more nutritious options.
- Safety & Inclusion: sections include answers to common questions around food safety and information to help support an inclusive food environment, such as considerations around allergies, diverse food needs and strategies to include more Indigenous and cultural foods into school food programs.
- Fundraising & Events: provides additional ideas to fundraise and celebrate with more nutritious food options or with non-food-related alternatives.
- Resources: quick access to PDFs including Food Lists, Menu Plans, Recipes and Videos.
- FAQs: Answers to common questions around the toolkit, its use and its content.
- Contacts: If looking for additional support with the toolkit, a list of public health dietitians working with schools can be found here.
For School Food Coordinators
Are you a school food coordinator looking for ideas and resources for meal planning and food purchasing?
For School Administrators
Are you a school administrator looking for resources for meal planning and food purchasing, as well as additional ideas for creating healthy food environments in schools?
For School Food Providers and Vendors
Are you an external food provider or vendor wanting to explore how your products can support healthy school food environments?
In this toolkit
We gratefully acknowledge that we are carrying out our work throughout the territories of 204 distinct First Nations across B.C. The Ministry of Health acknowledges that its main office is situated on the territories of the Lək ̓ ʷəŋən speaking peoples, the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.
In this toolkit, we will challenge ourselves and others to consider the ways in which school food environments can act as agents of reconciliation. Taking opportunities to centre Indigenous voices, and celebrating and teaching about Indigenous foods (or foods that have been cultivated, taken care of, harvested, prepared, preserved, shared, or traded within the boundaries of one’s respective territories) is an act of decolonization.
While the process of colonization sought to eliminate Indigenous worldviews, it was unsuccessful. Many Indigenous foodways persist, showing their resilience and relevance in today’s world. In fact, a growing body of scientific evidence is proving what Indigenous Peoples have known all along– that we are all interconnected, and our shared survival depends on this recognition. As uninvited guests, we cannot change what happened in the past, but we do carry the responsibility to move forward in new ways. We can learn to treat nature as a relative, to “eat where we live” and to consider how the decisions we make today impact future generations.
For millennia, Indigenous Peoples have fostered strong and vibrant food systems based on values of interdependency, mutual respect, reciprocity, and ecological stewardship with all their relations (land, air, water, soil and plant, animal and fungi species). Food is a sacred gift of life to be shared and encompasses relationships, cultural values, language, connection to ancestors, health, well-being and identity. As a resource, food has been governed by Indigenous Peoples through Potlatches, Feasts, Big Houses, Longhouses, kitchen parties and gatherings. Grounding school food programs in local cultures and ecosystems revitalizes Indigenous foodways, creates connections for reconciliation and promotes the health and well-being of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
We are very grateful to First Nation Elders and Knowledge Holders, including Jared Qwustenuxun Williams, Nitanis Desjarlais, ‘Cúagilákv (Jess Housty), Andrew George, Kuunaajaad (Jenny Cross) and Tiffany Traverse, as well as Métis Nation BC’s Ministry of Education (Early Learning| K-12) and the South Okanagan Similkameem Métis Association for sharing their time, knowledge, and wisdom to inform this toolkit.
Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Throughout this toolkit we have orange boxes highlighting Indigenous voices and perspectives, to help non-Indigenous peoples build cultural competence, humility and understanding. This will support the creation of culturally safe environments required to make reconciliation possible. We respectfully acknowledge that Indigenous includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, consisting of distinct communities and Nations with their own unique cultural, historical, political, economic and social structures, and each with distinct rights, interests and practices, including foods and food practices such as harvesting and preparation. As such, the Indigenous Ways of Knowing may not apply to all Indigenous communities and we have tried to acknowledge that in the boxes’ content. We appreciate feedback that may arise as you review these sections that may contribute to our unlearning and learning, as we work towards reconciliation.
Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Indigenous Knowledge Educator Jared Qwustenuxun Williams shares his vision for Indigenous informed school food programs
Featured Recipes
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Vegetarian
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Nut free
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Dairy free
Oatmeal with Fruit
This recipe was provided by Ron Weeks from Wickanninish Community School in Tofino, BC
Yield: 50 servings
Serving Size: 250 mL
Yield: 50-60 servings
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