Mayoral candidate Olivia Chow is promising to provide lunches in school if re-elected, a move she says will save parents an estimated $1,800 per year.
But at least one of her opponents is slamming the proposal as “an idea without a plan to pay for it.”
“Prices at big grocery stores just keep rising. With a robust school food program, we can give parents some breathing room. We can save families thousands of dollars a year feeding kids in school. And give parents a break on making lunch every day,” Chow said in a written statement.
“Back in 1990, Jack Layton and I made a plan to feed every kid in Toronto schools. More than ever, school food can save families money and help kids focus on their teacher, not their hunger. We need to keep moving forward, not backwards.”
The expansion to lunch, she said, will be phased in and will be funded like the existing school food program, which is paid for by the city, other levels of government, and private donations.
“Let’s make universal school lunch a reality,” Chow said at a news conference on Monday morning.
“We will phase it in, test it, do our homework, and we will make it a group project. We will work with the provincial and federal governments to make it happen by 2030.”
Chow previously expanded the school food program to offer a mid-morning meal to 330,000 students across the city.
Toronto’s share of that program currently costs the city $32 million dollars.
“The key thing is bulk purchasing,” Chow said.
“When we buy in bulk, it saves about 40 per cent of the cost of food. We’ve seen it, we’ve demonstrated it... we want to buy local with the local farmers because we are in the middle of a trade war.”
Chow did not provide an estimate on how much expanding the program would cost the city or other levels of government.
“We are talking about a real difference in the family budget plus a little bit more time back in your evening so you don’t need to stress about packing lunch,” she said of offering lunches in schools.
“It guarantees that every kid will have the energy to learn, to complete, to play.”
In a written statement, Chow’s opponent, Brad Bradford, applauded the existing school breakfast program but called Chow’s school lunch promise “an idea without a plan to pay for it.”
“Every kid should be fed. That’s a goal worth having, and I will never argue with it. Credit where it’s due. Toronto’s school breakfast program is one of the best things this city does,” he said.
He committed to keeping the breakfast program at every school with full funding if he is elected mayor.
“In response to today’s press conference: with respect, it’s not an announcement. It’s an idea without a plan to pay for it, without a plan to organize it, and without a plan to engage the other levels of government on it,” Bradford said.
“Here’s the thing about promises you can’t keep. They’re not kind. A parent who hears ‘lunch for every kid’ starts planning around it. When the money is not there, that parent is the one who finds out. Until the mayor gets the City’s finances under control, she has to stop doing this.”
Bradford announced three-part plan for renters
In a subsequent announcement on Monday morning, Bradford outlined his plan to improve the lives of renters in the city.
That plan, he said, involves enforcing an existing renoviction by-law and increasing “transparency with a public dashboard.”
“A rule nobody enforces is not protection,” Bradford said.
“Properly” funding Toronto Building and eviction prevention programs is also part of the plan."
He said he also plans to introduce a “maximum heat standard” that renters “can count on,” including at least one cooled living space in every rental home.
“The phased plan will prioritize the oldest towers and Toronto Community Housing first,” Bradford noted.
He also wants to expand the Air Conditioner Benefit for low-income seniors and people with medical needs.
In an effort to build more homes, Bradford said, he will create a “predictable non-profit density framework” that give builders “clear eligibility, standard terms and a financially tested approach to density,” rather than “one-off” negotiations.
He said he will expand the city’s revolving pre-development fund, a program that currently offers $10 million in interest-free loans of up to $50,000 per affordable home.
“The city passed a renoviction licensing by-law in July 2025 and still cannot tell you how many renovictions it has stopped, because nobody publishes the results. 271,000 rental units sit in buildings with no air conditioning. Last summer the city’s air conditioner program delivered 489 units against 1,414 applications, turning away two-thirds of people who asked for help,” Bradford said in a news release.
“Council has directed a maximum heat bylaw for June 2027, and the mayor’s own staff report says 90% of the landlords the City consulted intend to pass the cost on to tenants. She has no answer for that. And too many non-profit and co-op housing developers are stuck without the support required to get building new affordable homes, as Mayor Chow continues to focus on her bureaucratic public builder model.”
Chow said Bradford’s “track record” with renters paints a different picture.
She said everything he endorsed in his plan on Monday are things she implemented during her tenure, adding that she established a renters action committee to get feedback.
She accused Bradford of ignoring tenants in his ward for the past eight years, suggesting that she was responsible for helping to fix the issues at 500 Dawes Rd.
“Bradford never took an interest in protecting renters as a city councillor and it’s clear he still doesn’t. Just ask the tenants,” the statement read.
