Healthy food, healthy minds at school

The Sherwood Park Breakfast Program is a community partnership hosted by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) that brings nutritious breakfasts three times per week to Sherwood Park Elementary students in North Vancouver. The program began when the school’s principal contacted the public health nurse, who contacted the public health dietitian for help with students who were having behavioural challenges at school because they were hungry. As a member of the North Shore Table Matters Network, the VCH dietitian connected multiple partners.

The partnership involves the District of North Vancouver, Food Lens, Harvest Project, Metro Vancouver, North Vancouver School District, Table Matters, TWN, Sherwood Park Elementary, and Vancouver Coastal Health. The Vancouver Foundation provided funding for the development of the program, and several partners have contributed both financially as well as with in-kind staff hours.

While TWN has offered a breakfast program at their community centre for the past ten years, the expanded breakfast program at Sherwood Park Elementary School has been operating since April 2016. Healthy breakfasts are prepared at TWN and delivered to the school. Food Lens coordinates procurement and preparation of the food. The food includes purchased and surplus food – demonstrating how food waste can be reduced while simultaneously improving childhood nutrition. This initiative is an example of what can be achieved via collaboration — both internally and with external partners.

More information

For more information, please read the full blog article posted on the Table Matters website:  http://www.tablematters.ca/breakfast-is-served/