Higher grocery prices are making it more difficult for parents to afford the food their kids need. In Canada, one in four children live in food insecure households, and that has a real impact on their opportunities to learn and grow. School food programs ensure students have access to nutritious food while at school, increasing learning and health outcomes while decreasing grocery bills for families with school-aged children.

The Federal Government has tranferred funds to the territory to support school food programs over the next two school years as part of the National School Food Policy. Now is the time for the Yukon Government to increase it's own investment, in both funds and energy to ensure that Yukon students have school food programs that not only meet their nutritional needs but also promote food literacy and respond to local community context. We have an opportunity to build school food programs that serve all Yukoners.

-Increase investment in school food programs
-Work with partners to facilitate flexible programs that are responsive to local context
-Work with Yukon First Nation Education Directorate to ensure Indigenous control over programs for Indigenous students

As food insecurity hits record highs we are hearing that challenges to producing, sharing and distributing food are preventing local food services from taking root. In some cases, the regulations are unclear. In others cases, they are seemingly at odds with city and federal policies, or other departments.  

-Review, revise and update all regulatory framework that relates to food system's elements
-Bring regulations in line with national best practices while taking into consideration local context
-Provide training for all Yukon employees on on systems navigation and familiarity with regulations to ensure consistency across departments
-Work with partners to increase clarity and tranparency of processes
-Create easy to use guides to help producers and service providers navigate regulations and policies
-Reduce regulations where they create unjustifiable barriers

Yukon Government is one of the largest food purchasers in the Yukon, spending more than 3M annually purchasing food for the hospitals, schools, jail and continuing care homes. As such, it is well positioned to lead the way in supporting local food systems by buying more Yukon grown products. Minimum purchasing orders from such a large buyer helps to stabilize the market and reduce risks for Yukon farmers and producers of food. Despite having a 10% minimum target, only around 1% of the food Yukon Government purchases comes from Yukon producers.

-Create a phased plan for minimum local purchasing requirements (not recomemendations) that are specific to Yukon grown or produced products (for example 2025:5%, 2026:10%, 2027:15%)
-Work with Yukon producers and stakeholders to support the supply chain where necessary so that the industry can grow sustainably and meet these targets  
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