Bio:

COUNRTNEY WHEELTON, Director of First Nation Initiatives at Yukon First Nation Education Directorate. The YFNED Nutrition Program provides equitable and healthy food to all Indigenous children aged 0 to 18 residing in the Yukon. Through rural and urban programs, YFNED provides in-school meal services, food hampers, family feasts, and other nutritional support to Indigenous families. The Nutrition Program also promotes healthy traditional food practices such as seasonal harvesting, preservation and meal preparation.

JUDITH BARRY cofounded the Club des petits déjeuners du Québec (Québec Breakfast Club) in 1994, fuelled by the desire to create social change. She wanted every child to receive two key elements for learning: a nutritious breakfast in a caring and inclusive environment. Judith contributed to growth at every level of the provincial organization and then went on to play a pivotal role in the founding of Breakfast Club of Canada in 2006. Judith is now the Director of Impact and Provincial & Territorial Government Relations, Breakfast Club of Canada, which, with its community partners, currently funds and supports over 5,000 schools across the country, providing nutritious food access to more than 2M students (nearly 900k breakfast served daily in every province and territory.

JESSE VEENSTRA is the Executive Director of Farm to Cafeteria Canada, a national partnership-based organization whose mission is to transform how food is experienced, learned and celebrated in all schools across Canada. From 2018–2022 Jesse managed Farm to School: Canada Digs In! Canada’s first national farm to school initiative designed to improve student nutrition and food literacy, while building community and strengthening local food systems. Prior to joining F2CC, she worked for more than a decade managing health system transformation projects related to community health and wellbeing in BC’s public health system. 

THIBAUD LINÉ, Director, La Cantine pour tous 

Thibaud Liné is the Director of La Cantine pour tous, a social economy non-profit providing more than 56,000 healthy, affordable, and accessible school meals every day across 15 regions in Quebec. Through its flagship program, La Cantine dans les écoles, the organization works with over 50 community catering partners to deliver nutritious hot lunches using a “pay what you can” pricing model designed to support universal access.

Thibaud has dedicated his recent career to improving food security and advancing equitable access to healthy meals. Since joining La Cantine pour tous in 2018, he has become an advocate for accessible, sustainable, and community-driven school food programs in Canada.

DUWARD ANTHONY, Nutrition Liaison Officer, Toronto District School Board, is part of the TDSB Student Nutrition Team that provides support to school administrators and Local Nutrition Program Committees (LNPC) to ensure the sustainability of 638 nutrition programs, within 506 TDSB schools, serving over 200,000 meals & snacks per day. As a strong community advocate and champion, he is a connector and leads many initiatives for culturally inclusive programs. Durward is a member of the national Black School Food Working Group as well as the Indigenous Food Sovereignty representative at the TDSB. 

RACHEL-ENGLER STRINGER, Professor, Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan, is widely recognized for her leadership in evaluating and expanding school food environments in Canada. She is the Principal Investigator for several highly influential public health intervention studies, including Good Food For Learning, the School Food Development Project, and Promising Practices in School Food Programs, case studies from every province and territory, historical analysis, and international reviews. Rachel brings the perspective of a parent to her research as she describes in her exciting recent TED Talk.

DEBBIE FIELD, National Coordinator, the Coalition for Healthy School Food, Canada’s largest school food network with more than 500 members and endorsers. A longstanding community activist in a variety of social movements, Debbie has been involved in promoting and improving school food programs for decades. starting when she was a child growing up in New York City where she participated in a free lunch program and loved the mashed potatoes and meatloaf but hated the stigma of eating in the “free lunch” cafeteria. Debbie was instrumental as a parent activist in organizing a healthy hot lunch program at her children’s school and then advocating to the City of Toronto for the first student nutrition program funding. During her years as the Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, she and her colleagues were involved in developing innovative and sustainable student nutrition and food literacy programs.