Nova Scotia pilots reusable packaging for school lunch programs

As the Province of Nova Scotia expands its school lunch program, it is looking to more environmentally friendly packaging options.

In the 2024-25 school year the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program served more than 4.7 million lunches. While that is a huge success in making sure students are well fed, it also creates a great deal of waste.

For the 2025-26 school year, the program was expanded to all schools containing middle and junior high grades, with the province investing $80 million.

But the province is also looking to reduce the waste associated with these ready lunches.

At the end of February, 34 schools will receive their lunches in reusable containers provided by the Canadian company Friendlier.

This will include reusable packaging for approximately 26,000 lunches per week.

Friendlier was launched by two chemical engineers in Guelph in 2019 who wanted to create a sustainable impact in the food industry.

“Friendlier is proud to partner with the Province of Nova Scotia and Chartwells to pilot reusable packaging for the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program,” Jacquie Hanton, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Friendlier, said in a press release. “By making reuse simple and accessible, Friendlier empowers students to eliminate daily packaging waste and build habits that last a lifetime. This initiative marks an important step toward scaling reuse across Nova Scotia.”

The company has partners in more than 200 locations across Canada. The containers will be collected for professional cleaning and can be used up to 100 times.

In 2025, Friendlier reached over 3.3 million containers reused across Canada.