Planetary Health on the Menu at School

In Quebec, one in five students arrives at school with an empty stomach. Too many children still lack access to vegetables, fruits, whole grains and plant-based proteins. Diets that are often dominated by ultra-processed foods — overly salty, sugary, and heavily packaged — are not good for our children’s development or for our planet.

For many students in disadvantaged communities, school may be the only place where can learn about and have access to healthy food. The food that's served at school can affect students' eating habits for years to come. Unfortunately, many school meals currently fall short of Canada’s Food Guide, which calls for more plant-based, less processed meals that are better for both human health and planetary health.

At a time of climate disruption, biodiversity loss and growing food insecurity, rethinking what we put on students’ plates has never been more important. Nourishing children well means giving them the foundation to learn, grow and thrive — while building a healthier, more sustainable future. Change can start in our schools.

Schools have an important role to play in the transition to healthier and more sustainable food. By adopting planetary health menus — featuring more local and plant-based food, fewer ultra-processed products, and less waste — they can help transform much more than what’s on the plate.

Planetary health menus not only align with Canada’s Food Guide, they go further by integrating local and environmentally responsible choices. By adopting them, schools can become true drivers of change. They can make healthy, sustainable food more accessible and help students develop food literacy — the skills to understand, choose and appreciate what they eat.

Opting for planetary health menus is a chance to build stronger connections between schools and local farmers and producers, with ripple effects for families, communities and society at large. Every school meal becomes more than nourishment: it becomes a way to support communities and help shape a better future.

Since its beginning, Équiterre has worked to reconnect people with their food and to highlight the impact of our choices on both human health and the health of the planet.

For more than 20 years, the organization has advanced sustainable institutional food. Through research, field projects and public engagement, Équiterre highlights how our choices affect not only our health and the environment, but also the local economy and the farmers who feed Quebec. By working with schools, we're helping to shift practices toward healthier, more local and environmentally responsible models — offering concrete, inspiring solutions.

The Planetary Health on the Menu at School project is part of this effort. Its goal is to introduce school menus that are better for both human health and the planet — with less meat, more legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, local ingredients, minimally processed foods and less waste. We're working to get schools to provide students with meals that are both nutritious and sustainable, to encourage families to follow suit, and to strengthen connections across the food chain to support a sustainable transition from farm to plate.

Given the scope of this work, Équiterre is collaborating with two key players in school food in Quebec: La Cantine pour tous and the Breakfast Club of Canada. With their hands-on expertise and shared commitment to more responsible menus, we're confident that we can accelerate the transition toward healthier school food.

By putting planetary health at the heart of school menus, the project nourishes children while protecting the ecosystems that sustain them — supporting the health of bodies, soils, biodiversity and the resilience of agriculture.

By recognizing schools as places of learning, every meal becomes an opportunity to raise awareness, to experiment and to inspire. The project equips school communities, strengthens ties between families and food system actors, and can help planetary health menus take root across Quebec — and beyond.