Recently, the province announced the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program will begin this October. A release from the Nova Scotia Government states the education and early childhood development department continues to work with schools, regions and vendors to put the final touches on the program, including training staff and vendors, installing equipment, testing ordering technology and finalizing menu items.
The first phase of the program includes every school that has elementary school grades, which adds up to more than 75,000 students and potentially more than 13 million lunches served in the coming school year. It is a pay-what-you-can program, meaning families can choose to pay the full $6.50 cost of the lunch, part of the cost or nothing.
Lunches will start in schools on October 1st, 15th or 28th, with ordering opening two weeks before the first lunches are served. Families will be able to choose between two lunch options every school day, with at least one vegetarian lunch offered each day.
Other school food programs, including the free breakfast program and snack programs will continue as usual.
Nourish Nova Scotia is excited about the announcement, says Lindsay Corbin, project co-lead for school food with the organization. She said they are happy the program looks like it is following a lot of the eight guiding principles of the Coalition for Healthy School Food.
For more information, visit nslunch.ca/, The site includes the list of more than 250 schools where lunch will be offered by the end of October, examples of meals and more. Program start dates for all Phase 1 schools, the full menu and the online ordering system will be added to the site throughout September.