Well-conceived and collectively enacted school food programs can bring numerous, cascading benefits to students, communities, and food environments more broadly. As Federal legislation brings into being such programs across Canada and Indigenous territories, ongoing research and reflection will be needed, as Rachel Engler-Stringer tells us in this episode. Starting things off, though, Alexia Moyer’s Amuse Bouche segment reveals a number of lessons—some more useful than others—from Saskatchewan’s early 1900s school food planning. And in the After Taste, Penelope Stam responds to the focus article, “The case for a Canadian national school food program” from Vol. 5 No. 3 of Canadian Food Studies.

Guests:

Dr. Alexia Moyer is co-Managing Editor of Canadian Food Studies and a founding member of the editorial collective, red line-ligne rouge, based in Montreal.

Rachel Engler-Stringer a professor in Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan, and a leading expert in school food programs.

Penelope Stam is an undergraduate student at Western University and a food systems researcher with Food Research-Action Montreal at Dawson College.

Mentioned in this episode:

- The Rural School Luncheon by Fannie Twiss (Saskatchewan Department of Education)

- Canada’s National School Food Program

Credits:

Host/Producer: David Szanto

Executive Producers: Rachel Engler-Stringer, Laurence Godin, Charles Levkoe, Phil Loring, Kristen Lowitt

Music: Alex Guz and Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay

Sound Effects: Aviana_Phoenix, BenKirb, and freesound_community from Pixabay; applehillstudios on Pond5

Cover art photo: Alexia Moyer

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Digesting Food Studies is funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Lakehead University, and the Canadian Association for Food Studies.