As part of a wider package of support for minority groups the Canadian Government has announced it will give the University of Saskatchewan CAN $849,753 to design culturally appropriate and comprehensive school food programs that are integrated into school curriculums.
These food programs will promote healthy eating and can be implemented within Indigenous communities in the province.
The support comes on the back of research that shows that 44 percent of adults in Canada live with at least one chronic disease, such as heart disease, hypertension, cancer, or diabetes. This is particularly high among that experience conditions of social and economic disadvantage (e.g., 65 percent among adults with less than high school education, 53 percent among First Nations off reserve and 52 percent among the Métis – the indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada’s three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Northern United States.
The funding is being distributed through the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund which supports projects that aim to lower people’s risk of chronic disease by tackling common modifiable risk factors, namely unhealthy eating, smoking, and physical inactivity.