From hot meals to fresh produce, students at Immaculate Conception Catholic Elementary School are benefitting from a school nutrition project initiated in partnership with St. Clair College's Research and Innovation department.
Stakeholders, including board representatives, project partners, funders, and community advocates joined the Research and Innovation team at the downtown Windsor school recently to witness the mid-way milestone of the pilot project.
The initiative - funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF) grants - is evaluating the feasibility of a school-wide lunch program that delivers healthy, vendor-prepared meals twice each week to roughly 300 students. The delicious meals are paired with bi weekly food literacy lessons that teach children how nutrition fuels learning, growth, and their overall well being.
"A child's relationship to food is more than nourishment - it's an unfolding story of connection, culture, and care," said Dr. Karamjeet K. Dhillon, the Director of Research and Innovation at St. Clair College. "When we attune ourselves to children's voices about food, we begin to understand how their embodied experiences - sourcing ingredients, learning about biodiversity, and engaging in daily food rituals - shape their sense of self and community."
"These sensory, relational encounters foster muscle memory that grounds learning, wellbeing, and identity. In doing so, food becomes a vehicle not just for survival, but for educational attainment, creativity, and deeper meaning-making across generations," Dr. Dhillon said.
Stakeholders pose for a photo during a school nutrition project observation day at Immaculate Conception on May 1, 2025. (Rich Garton/St. Clair College)
The school's principal, Heather Best, said students were very excited to receive meals every week and looked forward to the different options.
"For some classes, when the food was delivered to their classrooms, there were cheers when they found out what was on the menu," said Best, adding pizza, butter chicken and tacos were crowd favourites. "Often I would go into classrooms while the students were eating and they would always say thank you and tell me how much they liked the meals."
The educational aspect of the pilot program is where school administrators really hope to have an impact.
"It's one thing to serve the meal, however when students are educated about the importance of proper nutrition, where food comes from and how good nutrition helps their bodies, it creates an opportunity for students to learn to make healthy meal choices outside of the school," Best said.
The school nutrition project is a collaboration between various parties, including the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board, Green Heart Kitchen, Victorian Order or Nurses, AgScape, the Ontario Student Nutrition Program (southwest region) United Way Windsor-Essex Chatham-Kent and St. Clair College.
"The NSERC CCSIF Grant School Nutrition Project enables us to assess the feasibility of implementing a comprehensive school-wide lunch program in our local schools," said David Potocek, a Project Research Manager in the Research and Innovation department. "As the needs of our students continue to evolve, it is more important than ever to ensure they have consistent access to nutritious meals, providing the fuel they need to learn, grow, and thrive."
Students are also giving the program rave reviews.
"I like the food program because everybody can get food and there's so many diverse, different foods. And there's vegetables in them too, so you can eat healthy still," said one student.
"You can enjoy your meals without having to worry about food," quipped another student. "It's very good for people that don't bring snacks often. They can get food from there and can also bring it home to share with their family."
"The meals helped me focus more because when I'm hungry, I focus more on my stomach and not the learning," another student said.
The project also features involvement by St. Clair College students, who visit the school weekly to deliver the nutrition-based curriculum which complements the fresh food.
"It's important that they are well fed and well-nourished so they can pay attention more in their classes," said Sarah Julius, an Early Childhood Education and Concurrent Education student at the College.
"Often when students understand and know where their food comes from, they feel more encouraged to try new foods and feel more confident in the foods they're eating," Julius said. "They seem very happy and seem to really enjoy it."
"Our students play an integral role in conducting applied research at St. Clair College, and this was exemplified in the CCSIF grant - Collaboratively Addressing Food Insecurity: Co-Developing a Sustainable and Equitable School Nutrition Program," said John Lopez, the Program Manager at the College's Research and Innovation department. "Student researchers actively contributed to the design, planning, and implementation of the school nutrition program."
Principal Best has seen firsthand the effects of food insecurity within her school population, one she knows is a problem shared by families in communities across Canada.
"For us to have the opportunity to provide a meal twice a week was certainly a benefit to our students," Best said. "In speaking with some students about the impact of the program, particularly where students described being able to focus better while in class, it reinforces the importance of projects such as this and the importance of school nutrition programs."
During the school visit, guests toured the kitchen and serving stations, observed classroom nutrition activities, and spoke directly with students, teachers, and food service staff. Early feedback underscored three key outcomes: improvement of food access, enhanced engagement and growing food literacy.
Insights gathered during observation day will shape the project's next phase, inform best practices for scalable school-based nutrition models, and strengthen the collective effort to support student health across Windsor-Essex.
"When we listen to children talk about food, we are not just hearing what they eat - we are witnessing how they learn, remember, and build a world they want to belong to," said Dr. Dhillon.
