Montreal parent's concerns about ultra-processed snacks in schools lead to investigation

Daniel Visina suspected there was a problem with unhealthy snacks at his children’s school. So he conducted his own investigation into the snacks at the entire CSS DM and found out he was right. Daniel Visina joins us in studio now. Thanks for coming in today. Thanks Steve. So you you first complained to the service center a few years back. You weren’t really happy with the answer that you got back. So you did your own investigation through an access to information request. So tell us what did you find out? I first found out that there was a lot of ultra processed foods given to children and that there were a very few vegetables and fruits given to children. So that was, that was quite a problem. And yeah, well and it all started out because your kids were coming home with wrappers, right, with the with foods that kind of gave you a hint that things were not on the up and up in terms of healthy snacks. What kind of wrappers were you seeing? It was mainly cookies and sweet yogurts and sometimes ultra processed cheese and. And So what? Why were you concerned about that? I mean obviously at home I think you provide a very balanced diet, but what was your larger concern about not just your own children? Well, my kids do eat very well at home, so it’s not really an issue and I can give them snacks if I want to, for them to bring to school so that they don’t eat the snacks from school. But from a public health perspective, I think we’re into a big problem right now. One kid out of 10 has obesity problem in Canada right now we have to address this issue. We have a new update that came out of the Canadian guidelines which we say that ultra processed foods are linked to young obesity, juvenile diabetes and cavities. So we have to we have to act on this. We can’t just leave it as is and and actually the Regional Student Ombudsman sort of agreed because it came out with recommendations that eight of them and and So what can you tell me a little bit about those recommendations. So what what what do they suggest? Yeah, so basically from one year from now, the CSSDM is supposed to give 50% of the time fruit or vegetable to the kids as a snack, and two years from now they should give the kids a fruit or vegetable 100% of time. So every snack should be accompanied by a fruit or vegetable or vegetable. OK, and so what’s the, say, SSDM response to all of this? What have you heard? Well, they’re giving me some vague answers as usual, with no timeline. So that’s the most important thing. I think it’s a waiting game for them. They they’re giving me vague answers as usual. Basically they’re saying that they don’t have the resources, they don’t have enough money to to buy the snacks, the healthy snacks, which is completely false. I mean there are some cheap options. You can buy bananas, apples and Clements in do a perfect job if you don’t have much money on the budget. And then if you have more budget, you can go and buy more exotic fruits or vegetables or or buy some proteins with that or something else. Nuts. We we did reach out to the CSSDM and they said they’re not able to respond to us until May 8th. Do you think that this will be resolved by the time your kids graduate from school? Hopefully it will be, but I’m not doing this. My kids, my kids do eat very well at home and and I’m mostly doing this for the other 20,000 kids in Montreal that go to elementary school and for whom it might be a public concern, a public health issue at some points. Well, I know it was weeks and weeks and weeks of work for you. I thank you so much for coming into studio and telling us about it. You’re very welcome.