Orders now being taken for school lunch program at nearly 30 schools

An online ordering system is now up and running for Nova Scotia’s school lunch program.

As of Friday, families of students in the first 28 schools included in the program can order food.

“Yesterday, families in the first group of schools will have received messages with individual student information that will let them go to NSlunch.ca and log on to our new ordering system,” said Education Minister Becky Druhan. “The system includes photos of lunches, descriptions and ingredient lists to help families make informed choices about what options work for them.”

Druhan said the first group of schools are in the Cape Breton – Victoria, Strait and Tri-County Regional Education Centres. The program will open to more schools with elementary grades through October, with 255 schools set to be included by October 18.

The full cost of a lunch is $6.50, but as previously announced it is a private, pay-what-you-can program. That means families can choose to pay the full amount, only part of the cost, or nothing at all.

The provincial government said the lunch program comes at a cost of $18.8 million for the current school year

As for when all schools across the province will be included int he program, Druhan acknowledged government had initially committed to a four-year rollout.

“We are going to move this ahead as quickly as we possibly can,” she said.