We learned these days that Québec solidaire will present a motion to the National Assembly to eliminate hunger in our schools by 2026.
This proposal should, must, be unanimous, and this for reasons that The dutytwo days ago, recalled very well.
Prévert would have said it
For my part, this will probably not surprise you, it was a poem by Prévert that immediately came to mind. You may know him. Here is the beginning:
It is terrible / the little noise of the hard-boiled egg broken on a pewter counter / it is terrible this noise / when it stirs in the memory of the hungry man.
But it quickly became home to me: the dizzying rustling of hunger is terrible, it is terrible when it resonates so loudly in the student’s head that it prevents him from hearing, and even more from understanding the the teacher who nevertheless reminds us at this very moment of this very nice way of finding the multiplication table by 9.
In short, and paradox aside, the appetite for knowledge that school must nourish can only be born and grow if there is no hunger there.
The equality of chances
There is an ideal in this matter that should not be neglected: that of equality of opportunity, which is a value that we aspire to defend everywhere and which, however, we must make exist at school, at least if we take the democratic ideal seriously.
However, even before getting there, simply by the conditions in which they live, students are already, on many levels, in a situation of unfair and cruel inequalities compared to their brothers and sisters. And I suspect — and there is much evidence to support this suspicion — that the increases in food prices that we are experiencing at the moment are making a situation that was already tragic even worse.
In this issue, it is no surprise that we learn that various studies, such as that of Cook and Jeng for Feeding America, or that of Johnson and Markowitz published in Child Developmentreminded (but Prévert would have told us…) how hunger and food insecurity, by undermining things like the ability to concentrate, memory, mood and motor skills, have a negative impact on school performance.
More concretely, teachers in our country reported suspecting food insecurity when they saw that students were not participating in activities; are tired or fall asleep early in the morning; refill themselves several times or hide food to bring home when it is offered by the school; and observe others’ snacks or dinners with envy.
This respect for equal opportunities, combined with the simple fact that it is already morally inconceivable that children do not eat their fill in a rich society like ours, must lead us to do everything possible to eliminate hunger in our schools by 2026. Everyone and all political parties should therefore support the Québec Solidaire proposal, which must achieve consensus beyond any partisanship.
There will certainly remain technical problems to resolve and debates to hold. How will menus take into account things like allergies, ethical (vegetarianism, veganism, environmentalism) or religious dietary restrictions, and I’m probably forgetting some. And many others.
But the principle of ending hunger in schools cannot fail to be quickly adopted, and we must quickly begin to act to put in place what follows. Which could go with things we don’t think about much at the moment. There is an interesting place to go to learn about this.
What is already being done and what could be done
The LAB-École team recently published a very interesting work on these questions: Growing, cooking and eating together at school.
There we will find great proposals and a valuable assessment of what is already being done in this area: because things are being done and we must remember them. Resources exist in school service centers; organizations offer financial and human assistance for food-related projects (AgrÉcoles, Five Spice Workshops, Quebec Collective for Healthy School Food, Weight Coalition, and many others). All of them can help to quickly implement what is required.
And things are already being done and could become more widespread to integrate food and even agriculture into schools.
At the opening of this book, Ricardo writes: “Today, now, let us ensure that we provide the infrastructure and human and financial resources necessary for food security for all children. Let’s transform our Quebec schools into real living environments, where food and agriculture become tools for life. » These words are more relevant than ever.
Only the appetite for knowledge can enter school. Hunger has no place there.
Doctor of philosophy, doctor of education and columnist, Normand Baillargeon has written, directed or translated and edited more than seventy works.