Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is putting food on the ballot. Campaigning for re-election ahead of the Oct. 26 municipal election, the incumbent pledged to phase in free school lunches for every Toronto student, with full coverage by 2030 — a move her campaign says would save families roughly $1,800 a year.
Chow framed the pledge as a return to a plan she and the late Jack Layton first sketched in the early 1990s. The city already runs a morning meal program reaching about 330,000 students, with the city's current share costing $32 million; Chow says bulk purchasing could cut food costs by around 40 percent, with the expansion funded through municipal, provincial and federal dollars plus private donations.
The announcement also bundled 1,000 additional free monthly family passes to city museums and attractions, plus free children's programming at all 100 Toronto library branches every weekend.
Her main challenger, Brad Bradford, dismissed the lunch promise as 'an idea without a plan to pay for it,' noting no total cost estimate was attached. Bradford countered with renter-focused pledges of his own, including tougher renoviction enforcement and minimum cooling standards in rental units.
School-meals funding has been a long-simmering issue in Toronto politics, and with three weeks to election day, both campaigns are now competing to own the affordability story.
