Mayor Olivia Chow announced today that the City of Toronto has won the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2025 – 2026 Mayors Challenge. The City will receive a $1.4-million investment as it works with community partners to expand bulk purchasing for school food programs, lowering food costs while supporting local jobs and Canadian farms.
The award comes on the heels of the City’s 2026 budget, which made critical investments to reduce the cost of living, including expanding school food programs to an additional 155 schools and 62,000 students this year. The City’s support for morning meal programs provides immediate relief on grocery bills, delivering almost $900 in potential savings for families with two kids. Toronto has boosted investment in school food programs by more than 80 per cent since 2023.
The City’s successful application benefitted from the input of key community partners including North York Harvest Food Bank, Toronto Foundation for Student Success, Second Harvest and the Coalition for Healthy School Food. In partnership with Food Reach, a social enterprise of North York Harvest Food Bank, the City will pilot creating a School Food Hub model that supports community-based food systems, creates local jobs and improves how school food is purchased, coordinated, and delivered.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies 2025 – 2026 Mayors Challenge is a competition to spur local government innovation that improves resident lives. Toronto is one of 24 cities that will receive $1 million USD ($1.4 million CAD) as well as operational support and additional funding for dedicated staff to bring the school food innovations to life. The 24 winners were selected from more than 630 applications.
Quotes:
“As food costs continue to rise, one in four visitors to Toronto’s food banks are children. Winning the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge means Toronto will tackle the cost of living and food insecurity crises head on — feeding every public-school student a nutritious meal each day. This is not a pilot program — it is a system-level shift, using the city’s purchasing power to lower costs, support local jobs and farms, and save families nearly $900 a year on groceries. This is about giving every kid what they need to excel — and reshaping the food economy around them.”
– Mayor Olivia Chow
“School food programs are critical to helping children focus, learn, and thrive. By partnering with nonprofit social enterprises like FoodReach, the City of Toronto and North York Harvest Food Bank are multiplying the impact of every dollar, creating local jobs, supporting local suppliers, building wealth in our community while strengthening food access across our city.”
– Ryan Noble, Executive Director, North York Harvest Food Bank
“The most effective city halls are bold, creative, and proactive in solving problems and meeting residents’ needs — and we launched the Mayors Challenge to help more of them succeed. We look forward to supporting this year’s 24 winners as they bring their innovative projects to life — and to seeing their ideas spread to more cities around the world.”
– Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P., and three-term mayor of New York City
Toronto is home to more than three million people whose diversity and experiences make this great city Canada’s leading economic engine and one of the world’s most diverse and livable cities. As an Official Host City for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ and the fourth largest city in North America, Toronto is a global leader in technology, finance, film, music, culture and innovation and climate action, and consistently places at the top of international rankings due to investments championed by its government, residents and businesses. For more information visit the City's website or follow us on X, Instagram or Facebook.