Mayor says Vancouver students not getting ‘fair share’ in food funds

Vancouver city councillors say local children aren’t receiving their fair share of government funding for school meals.

Councillors Rebecca Bligh and Pete Fry successfully put forward a motion to a city council special committee Wednesday to restore an annual fund to help the Vancouver School Board (VSB) provide students access to food.

The motion explains that the city has been funding the VSB meal program, “Food4Schools,” and advocating for the provincial and federal governments to step in since 2015.

“Since 2020, in addition to advocating for the senior government to establish a universal healthy food program, the city has provided $325,000 from the Operating Budget in annual funding through to June 2025,” Fry and Bligh’s motion explains.

In 2024, the city halted its contribution, anticipating a new provincial investment through the “Feeding Futures” Fund and federal funding through a National School Food Program for VSB food programs.

The feds and the province negotiated an additional $39 million for B.C. schools over three years, but the councillors say not enough will make its way to Vancouver.

“In April 2025, VSB learned the expected funding allocations would be substantially reduced based on a provincial formula socioeconomic status index,” said the motion.

The councillors say a needs assessment has inadvertently excluded some, leading to gaps in coverage and potentially leaving some food-insecure students hungry.

The motion compels Mayor Ken Sim to write to the federal and provincial governments to “emphasize the urgent need for equitable, appropriate, and sustainable funding to support VSB students facing food insecurity, and express concern regarding the ongoing downloading of social services onto local governments.”

Speaking to reporters before it was tabled Wednesday, Sim implied he supported the motion and will contact senior government and explain the city’s need.

“It feels like Vancouver vulnerable families aren’t getting their fair share,” said Sim.

“When we look at the data, for example, the City of Surrey, they have about just over 10,000 kids that would be categorized as to falling below the poverty line, and each one of those kids get allocated about $92 per kid. Whereas the City of Vancouver, we have just almost 10,000 kids, and they get allocated $13 a kid. And so there is a bit of an imbalance here.”

The mayor says he’ll ask the province to be transparent about its formula for calculating need.

“At the end of the day, we are dealing with vulnerable families — kids that are facing food insecurity — and they’re going to school on empty stomachs, and it makes it really hard to learn or just get through the day when that happens.”

The motion will also reinstate the $325,000 to support the VSB until board staff can determine next steps to secure alternative funding.

Council voted unanimously to approve Bligh and Fry’s motion Wednesday afternoon.