School Food Programs

In 2023, the province of British Columbia invested funds into Feeding Futures. The initial funding was being provided over three years.  In 2025, funding was announced to be ongoing.

The guiding principles of the provincial Feeding Futures program are:

• students have access to food daily in an equitable, accessible and non-stigmatizing manner.
• programs support BC foods to grow local communities, economies, and food system resilience.
• programs are flexible, adaptable, and respectful of local contexts and needs.
• students have access to nutritious and culturally preferred foods to support healthy development and learning.
• programs centre and include students, families, First Nation Rightsholders, Indigenous partners and community members in decision-making and program delivery.

In 2024, the federal government announced funding to further support school food programs in Canada.  The National School Food policy points out the need for school food programs.  By offering nourishing food at school, students can focus on what truly matters: learning, growing and dreaming big.

The federal government's vision is “that all children and youth in Canada have access to nutritious food at school, in an inclusive, non-stigmatizing environment that fosters healthy practices, while strengthening connections with local food systems, the environment and culture.”

School food programs are known to be pre-existing in some schools.  However, they rely heavily or exclusively on volunteers, community groups, parents, and donations from the charitable and private sectors.  The federal government heard through stakeholder review that a lack of resources, an overreliance on volunteers, and rising costs are compromising the sustainability of these programs.  The intention of Feeding Futures and the National School Food Policy is to build on and strengthen these efforts.

Additional Information:

National School Food Policy

Ministry of Education and Child Care Feeding Futures 

Ministry of Agriculture Feed BC in kindergarten to grade 12 schools

BC School Food Toolkit

The Coalition for Healthy School Food

Food program vision: Each student has access to nourishment to support learning and development.

Food program mission: Offer a safe, collaborative, equitable, sustainable and nutritious food program throughout SD91 that are accessible and stigma- free.

Development of these food programs are a collaborative effort.  Conversations with partners are ongoing.  Feedback is welcome by completing this survey.  A student survey is also available.  Student input is encouraged.

A daily selection of items are available for breakfast and snack at each school.  Snack items are primarily made available through BC Agriculture in the Classroom and Foodbanks BC.

Sample breakfast menu:

Lunch programs are underdevelopment across the school district.  As such, schools are at different stages in offering a nourishing lunch program that reflects the goals of the school district food program.  Per the BC School Food Toolkit, a lunch will include a choice of protein, grain and fruit or vegetable.

• A grab'n go program for students is currently available at:
  • David Hoy Elementary School
  • Decker Lake Elementary School
  • Francois Lake Elementary School
  • Mapes Elementary School
  • William Konkin Elementary School 

This program offers a sandwich and fruit and/or vegetables to students as needed.

• An assemble-and-serve program is currently available at:
  • Mouse Mountain Elementary School
  • Grassy Plains 

This program offers a selection of food for students to choose from to eat.  The program is free of charge.

• A cooked-from-scratch lunch program is currently available at: (click the link to access the meal ordering page for the school)
  • Babine Elementary-Secondary School
  • Evelyn Dickson Elementary
  • Fort St James Secondary School
  • Fraser Lake Elementary-Secondary School
  • Nechako Valley Secondary School
  • Lakes District Secondary School (coming 2025/2026 school year)
  • Sinkut View Elementary School
  • W.L. McLeod Elementary School 

It is acknowledged that some schools had pre-existing food programs.  These programs are evolving to align with the Feeding Futures principles and the National School Food policy.  It is with gratitude to community partners, PAC and dedicated staff that these programs have been existing to provide nourishment to the student population.  These programs are the foundation to many of the school district food programs.

How do I set-up a Meal Manage account?

1. If your child/children attend a school with a pay-what-you-can lunch program and use Meal Manage, please set up an account.
2. If you are staff, please reach out to the Food Program Manager to get an account set-up.

How do I pre-order lunch?

Meals are ordered through Meal Manage, where debit and credit card payments are accepted.  Cash and cheque payment methods are accepted at the school.

Follow the how-to document for ordering lunch on Meal Manage.  Menus are posted about one month ahead of time.  Ordering windows vary with school but generally it opens on the 2nd Friday of the month, and closes 10 days later.  If you missed the order window, please reach out.  Late orders may be accommodated.

Note: for there is an option to pre-load funds on Meal Manage.  This is mostly used in the high schools, where students make a lunch choice day-by-day.  A how-to load funds document is available.

Other resources:

Meal Manage frequently asked questions

General food program questions

What about PAC hot lunch days?

PAC hot lunch days are a long-standing tradition.  The school district food program works with PACs to coordinate efforts.  For example, if a PAC wants to offer lunch on Tuesdays, then the school food program will operate the other days of the week.

Is EBUS included?

Yes, a food program for EBUS is under development.  So far, it has included sending snacks (packages of a seed-based trail mix, or pumpkin or sunflower seeds) for field trips.

Where does the money collected for school lunch go?

All funds go towards paying for the cost of food.  There are no profits.  All money in goes out.

How is the menu decided?

Each month, the Food Program Manager and School Meal Workers at each school collaborate to build the next menu.  A draft menu is started by the Food Program Manager, who includes recipe suggestions which have been received from students, and highlights possible foodie days and cultural celebrations to include.  The menu also includes “school's choice days”.  The School Meal Workers can move items around and suggest new ideas.  Together, a menu which offers a variety of foods is created.  

Do you have a menu suggestion?  Please share!  New recipes are welcomed and requested. 

My child/children have food allergies, can they participate?

School kitchens are not designated allergen-free.  However, the menu is designed so that students who are gluten-free have at least one meal each week they can eat.  At least one menu item in a week is lacto-ovo vegetarian.  Please pre-order meals and let the school know about any food allergen alerts.  The school meal workers will do their best to provide a safe meal.  24 hours notice at minimum is needed.

To help students and households make informed decisions, a food symbols chart has been developed.  This highlights pictures that may be used on recipes to say either:

1. the food has a possible food allergen, or
2. identify dietary preferences like vegetarian and vegan

These are recipes used by the school food programs.  However, the recipes may vary school-to-school due to ingredient availability.  Please inform the school about any food allergens and the school meal worker will modify the recipe as/if able.  Remember, the kitchens are not allergen free.

The school district food program is to be accessible by any student without stigma or barriers.  Donations are welcome to support the financial commitment of the program.  Financial donations can be provided to the school district office, with cheques made out to “School District 91 - Nechako Lakes”.  Please put "food program in the memo.  All financial donations will be used to provide nutritious food to all students.  

Food donations are possible.  Please contact the school and/or Food Program Manager.  We cannot accept expired goods or homemade food items (for example baked goods or home-canned products).

Thank you for supporting the school district food program.

One of the guiding principles of Feeding Futures is: programs support B.C. foods to grow local communities, economies and food system resilience.  K-12 schools are working to increase the use of B.C. food in the school food programs.  This is part of the FeedBC initiative from the B.C. government.  

More B.C food in school food programs increases students' access to quality, local, fresh food while increasing food system knowledge and connection.  It also helps B.C. farmers, food producers and processors thrive.  The goal is to spend 30% on local BC produced or processed food.

In 2025, the school district spent 44% of total food dollars on BC food products.  Of the total food dollars spent, 8% was spent in the Nechako Lakes region.  This was on items like bread, bagels, ground beef, breakfast sausages, eggs and produce when available.