No need to go as far as this great philosopher called Obelix and argue with him that we must not eat to live, but live well to eat – since “when the appetite goes, everything goes”, as he puts it. expressed in Goscinny and Uderzo’s masterpiece on Cleopatra.
The fact remains that eating is important, especially for children, for children who are at school and are there to study.
A proposal currently put forward by Québec solidaire calls for meals to be offered to all students at school. The Parti Québécois was also moving in this direction last year.
If recent polls are anything to go by, the majority of people would be in favor of this idea. I am too.
It remains to be said why and how to implement it.
The argument
A lot, really a lot has been published on this subject in recent years, especially since many countries (India, Brazil, Finland, South Korea, Rwanda, Japan, in particular) have meal programs for all at school.
In Canada, on the other hand, the subject is only just beginning to be addressed, although many voices are calling for such a program. In 2019, Justin Trudeau’s government committed to creating a universal school food policy. A first step was timidly taken last spring with the creation of a national school feeding program, the implementation of which is still awaiting.
Here in Quebec, there already exists an interesting program called La cantine pour tous which could be a good starting point for generalizing a meal program for all at school.
Its possible benefits, especially for the midday meal, have long been well documented.
To begin with, feeding children well improves academic performance. Yet too many children at school are malnourished or hungry. According to the La cantine pour tous website, “more than 20% of children in Quebec, or 200,000 young people, experience some form of food insecurity, including nearly 12% in a moderate or severe way.” The planned program would therefore make it possible to offer all children an essential healthy diet that helps promote academic success.
Then, correctly implemented, these programs make it possible to teach about food (how to eat well and why it is important) and to raise awareness of various issues related to food production and its distribution. We can then talk with the children about agriculture, the environment, local products and a lot of other subjects that every citizen should know.
If we decide to move forward, we will have to decide how to implement such a program?
The implementation
There are a large number of very concrete questions here that need to be answered.
Who will prepare the food? Will these be private companies? The community? Anything else? Where will it be prepared? At school? In central kitchens for several schools? Answers may vary depending on the School Service Center or even the school.
What will we offer on the menu? How can we respond to the particular needs that we think we must respond to (allergies, eating disorders, religious prohibitions, ethical choices, such as vegetarianism, etc.)? And more. Without forgetting of course how to deploy all of this with an educational component that will help children adopt healthy eating habits.
I’ll leave it to people who know the subject much better than me to answer all of this.
But to respond, it will be necessary to adopt ethical principles which will inevitably be debated. I will rule on two questions, each time adopting an ideal of equality of opportunity which sometimes requires unequal treatment.
The first very delicate question is to decide who is entitled to these meals.
Given the special status of our private schools, which are largely subsidized, I would limit this program to schools (preschool, primary and secondary) in the public network.
The second is whether this program should be completely free for everyone or not. This is likely to be the subject of much debate.
Here, the example of France seems inspiring to me. Poorer parents pay nothing or a minimal amount for their child’s meal (say, $1), much less than a meal prepared by them would cost.
Wealthier parents pay full price (say $6).
The prices paid by other parents vary according to their income between these two prices. The program is of course optional.
Let’s return to our great (I was going to say big…) thinker, Mr. Obelix. Let’s at least grant that you have to eat to be able to think. And among other things to be able to think about what we eat and what we should or should not eat…
(And thanks to my grandson who made me rediscover Asterix.)