Growing Chefs! Ontario: Feeding the mind: Expert lauds Ontario schools’ plan for ​‘food literacy’

Peggy O’Neil, an assistant professor at Brescia University College’s school of food and nutritional sciences, shares her support for a new emphasis on food literacy in Ontario schools, the first province in Canada to mandate food literacy across the grades. 

In March, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced a new science and technology curriculum and a de-streamed science course including food literacy launching this fall. Food literacy will now be a requirement for students in grades 1 to 8, and embedded in the Grade 9 science curriculum.

​“It’s mandated that it’s hands-on, so kids and youth will have some basic skills to care for themselves,” O’Neil said.

The new learning will include studying the benefits of locally grown food and learning about plants used for food and different approaches to agriculture.