The City of Toronto has won the the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2025 – 2026 Mayors Challenge — a prize that comes with a $1.4 million investment that will help support and further boost the city’s school food program.In an announcement on Tuesday, Mayor Olivia Chow said the prize includes two years of expert advice as well as additional funding for dedicated staff to bring the city’s vision to life.In the 2026 budget, the school food program was expanded to 155 more schools and 62,000 students this year. In addition, Chow said the City is innovating, not only to feed every student in Toronto, “but to build the best possible version of a school food program – one that supports local farmers and food processers, creates jobs right here in our city and uses our buying power to drive down the costs for everyone.”“Now with this $1.4 million award from Bloomberg Philanthropies we’re making it a reality – we’re not just feeding kids, we’re rebuilding how food gets to them,” she said.To that end, the City will develop a school food hub model in partnership with Food Reach, a social enterprise of North York Harvest Food Bank, to improve how school food is purchased, coordinated, and delivered. They aim to buy food in bulk as well as support local farmers by sourcing food locally, while creating jobs for parents and community members in the city.“We hope to use the city’s vast purchasing power to source more food locally at lower costs, supporting local jobs – not mega chains or U.S. based food suppliers,” Chow said.“This is a system level shift, not a pilot program, not just a one-year fix. Bulk purchasing and coordinating logistics can drive down food costs by more than 10 per cent.”The Bloomberg prize is a competition to encourage innovation by local governments to improve the lives of residents. It received more than 630 applications and Toronto is one of 24 winners.“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,” the City said in a press release.