School Breakfast Program

11,300 Ottawa children in 148 schools begin each school day with a nutritious meal provided by the Ottawa School Breakfast Program.

Students who are given nutritious breakfasts daily make significant improvements in learning, school attendance, behaviour and self-esteem. The School Breakfast Program ensures that children in need have access to a healthy breakfast in a safe, supervised environment – to help each child start their day ready to learn.

The School Breakfast Program is a wonderful partnership where schools, volunteers, community organizations and businesses come together to make the nutritional needs of children and youth a priority.

School boards continue to identify more children and youth in-need each year. In 1990, the program supported 1,000 students in 25 schools. Twenty-three years later over 11,300 students in 148 schools benefit from the support of the School Breakfast Program. That is over 2 million breakfasts every year!  The School Breakfast Program is open to all children and youth enrolled in one of the 148 participating schools. Students may be identified through school staff or parents. The philosophy of the program is that no child/youth is turned away.

The program supports all four Ottawa school boards: Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est, Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de L’Ontario, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Ottawa Catholic School Board

Program History

Schools in the Ottawa community have been providing meals for children for many years. In 1990 a need was identified to create a more unified student nutrition program and local school boards agreed. With input from local educators and members of the community, the United Way/Centraide Ottawa, the Community Foundation of Ottawa and ONFE began working together to develop a regional school breakfast program.

Get involved!
Here are some of the ways you can help:
Volunteer at a school breakfast program.
Host an event and raise funds for the program - click here to see the list of great event ideas!