Both of Toronto’s school boards will soon be warning parents about the risk of cuts to public health programming negatively impacting their students.

With the Ford government suddenly revealing cuts to their share of public health programs in Toronto and across the province, questions about what that will mean for programs currently funded by Toronto Public Health, such as the student nutrition program, remain unanswered.

At a meeting Thursday night, the Toronto District School Board voted unanimously to ask the province to “pause” any cuts pending a consultation about the effects and also to notify all parents of the risk of a funding loss “and the possible impacts that any service reductions will have on students in our schools.”

That followed a move Wednesday by the Toronto Catholic District School Board, which also voted unanimously to urge the province to reconsider the cuts and to write home to parents.

Both boards specifically mentioned the potential threat to student nutrition.

The student nutrition program provides healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks on specific days or a daily basis depending on location. Parents are made aware of the costs and some pay for the meals, but students aren’t charged at the time they get their food in order to avoid stigmatizing those who can’t afford to pay.

“Have you tried to go to work hungry? It’s very hard to focus,” Ward 9 TCDSB Trustee Norman Di Pasquale told the board Wednesday night. “We want to give our parents the information that the student nutrition program is under threat due to the cut to Toronto Public Health to inform them of this impending cut before it takes effect, taking our school communities by surprise.”

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On Friday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said programs like student nutrition would be unharmed.

“The breakfast clubs will continue as always,” she told Newstalk1010. “The money that comes from the government for those programs doesn’t even come from the Ministry of Health, that comes from the Ministry of Community and Social Services.”

However, the city’s board of health chair Councillor Joe Cressy said the student nutrition program is funded in large part by the city through Toronto Public Health. Cuts to public health, he said, put that and others programs at risk.

“The breakfast programs operate in every neighbourhood in every corner of our city,” said Cressy. “Toronto Public Health puts in the bulk of the funding for the student nutrition programs . . . When you cut Toronto Public Health you force us to make tough decisions and I’m deeply worried that our breakfast programs are at risk.”

In 2018, the province contributed $8.5 million to student nutrition in Toronto and the city funded $14.4 million of the cost, according to a breakdown provided by Toronto Public Health. The rest comes from money provided by parents, community fundraising and corporate donations, which has not been tallied for 2018 yet. In 2017, the total from other sources was $6.3 million.

The majority of program funding goes to food costs, with relatively little administrative costs with the help of parent volunteers, said TDSB board chair Robin Pilkey.

“The programs actually run out of money often before the end of the school year,” Pilkey said.

According to the breakdown provided to the Star, the program provided 210,842 meals daily in 2018 in 617 schools across the city. A ward breakdown showed the highest volume of meals — 17,446 per day — was served in Ward 7 (Humber River—Black Creek), represented by Councillor Anthony Perruzza.

In a statement Friday, Perruzza, who is also the city’s poverty reduction advocate, said he was “devastated” by the provincial cuts, noting the possible consequences for the student nutrition program.

“These extreme cutbacks are harmful to everyone and they will directly impact our city’s poverty rate,” the statement said.

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NDP MPP Tom Rakocevic, who represents the area, called the potential effect on student nutrition “heartless.”

“This is a basic, primary need for children,” he said.

The second-highest volume of meals is provided in Etobicoke North, Premier Doug Ford’s own riding and where his nephew, Michael Ford, is a councillor.

Councillor Ford, in a statement, called the nutrition program “critically important” to his community and said Toronto Public Health should continue to maintain funding for it and all “vital services.”

“It is incumbent on the city to find efficiencies and continue to provide these services,” he said.

A 2012 evaluation of an initial-two year pilot program by the TDSB found significant differences in student achievement between those who regularly had the morning meal and those who didn’t, while recommending a continuation of the program.

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For example, report card data from Grade 7 and 8 students showed 61 per cent of students who ate the morning meal daily achieved or exceeded the provincial standard for reading while only 50 per cent of those who got the meal a few days or not at all met those goals.

The city and province still disagree on the financial impact of the funding cuts to Toronto Public Health.

Toronto Public Health provided a budget analysis after the cuts were revealed last week showing a loss of over $64 million this year, assuming the city does not contribute any more than it does today. With the provincial share further decreasing by 2021, the cut over 10 years would amount to more than $1 billion, the city says.

On Friday, the province told the Star that under their calculations, Toronto would face a cut of only about $25 million this year. That figure assumes the city would increase spending to a 40-per-cent share of all programs, including those currently funded entirely by the province. The number is less than the $33 million earlier stated by the province because it assumes a nine-month, rather than 12-month impact, with the cut being retroactive to April 1. A provincial official said they have not calculated the long-term hit to Toronto because it would assume the programs stay exactly as they are today.

On Friday, both sides continued to spar over the cuts.

In the Newstalk1010 interview, Elliott suggested the gap created by the provincial downloading could be, in part, covered as a result of what she assumed would be savings of a new transit plan presented by Ford.

“They’ve got a huge commitment with respect to subways that should certainly help them,” Elliott said.

Mayor John Tory fired back in a response to questions from reporters at a later news conference.

“What does that transit funding have to do with filling the stomach of a hungry child?” he asked. “The answer is one has nothing to do with the other and the very fact they would be juxtaposed, to me, it’s hard for me to even take that seriously.”

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