Chow pledges full school lunch program by 2030, says families could save $1,800 per child

Mayor Olivia Chow announced Monday a plan to provide free lunch to every Toronto student by 2030, building on the school breakfast program her administration expanded to reach all schools in the city.

The proposal would allow families to save around $1,800 per child annually, Chow said, easing household grocery costs and eliminating the daily burden of packing lunches. The existing morning meal program already reaches approximately 330,000 students across Toronto schools.

"We will fund it the same way we funded the Morning Meal Program," Chow said at a press conference. "We will phase it in. Test it, do our homework. We will make it a group project." She said the city would work with provincial and federal governments to meet the 2030 target.

The lunch expansion would be rolled out in phases using the same funding model that currently supports Toronto's breakfast program—contributions from the City of Toronto, other levels of government, and private donors. More implementation details and timelines will be released as the rollout progresses.

If implemented, Toronto would join a growing number of Canadian and international jurisdictions with expanded publicly supported school meal programs. Chow tied the initiative to a decades-long effort she and Jack Layton championed. "Back in 1990, Jack Layton and I made a plan to feed every kid in Toronto schools," she said.