Toronto’s Holland Bloorview children’s rehabilitation hospital has launched a food-support program that provides caregivers of inpatients with $30 a day for meals, addressing an expense previously left outside patients’ covered care.

The program offers hot meals on weekdays and grocery credits on weekends, CBC Toronto’s Olivia Piercey reported. In a news release cited by CBC, the hospital described it as Canada’s first comprehensive hospital-based food-support program.

Sue Osbourne, a social worker at Holland Bloorview, told CBC the initiative is intended to ease both the financial pressure and the mental work of arranging food while caring for a child in hospital.

“Now they can just go down to the cafeteria without having to plan or think about it. They know that there’s a meal there,” she said.

According to Osbourne, one in five families at the hospital report household food insecurity, while six per cent of families receiving care live below the poverty line. Some parents remain with their children for up to a year, she said, and many cannot work during that time.

For Jennifer Paiva, who had been staying with her daughter Gabby for about three months when she spoke to CBC, the program has made eating easier. Gabby, who has cerebral palsy, was recovering from surgery during her second hospital stay for post-surgical care.

Paiva said that during the earlier stay, her daughter’s meals were covered but her own were not, and she barely ate. Staying beside her child could mean forgetting food until the end of the day. With the new program, she said, portions can sometimes stretch to two meals.

Another parent, Michelle Proc, stayed with her daughter Maddy Taylor for nearly 10 months after a car accident left Taylor with a traumatic brain injury. Proc took leave from work, leaving the family to budget around one income.

She told CBC she had relied on snacks such as granola bars and apples while focused on her daughter’s treatment. The program, she said, recognizes that families also need support.

Osbourne described parents as part of the hospital’s care team, saying access to food makes it easier for them to look after themselves while supporting their children.

Sources