Students at some New Westminster schools will have a new option for healthy lunches when the district’s school nourishment program rolls out in January.
The former New Westminster board of education approved the creation of a district-wide food program at the end of the last school year. In September, the school district hired a school nutrition coordinator to help with development and roll out of the new plan.
The goal is to make sure all kids are fed and all kids eat healthy. It will be universally accessible and voluntary.
The public will have its first chance to sample some of the foods at the district parent advisory council meeting in January, and district staff will be at the meeting to answer any questions parents might have.
There are also tasting events planned for Qayqayt and Queen Elizabeth elementary schools and Queensborough Middle School on Jan. 29, 30 and 31, respectively.
On Feb. 6, teachers and administrators will have a chance to try some of the food during a district-wide collaboration day before the food program starts the following day.
The district has planned a phased approach for the roll out, starting with Qayqayt (Feb. 5) and Queen Elizabeth (Feb. 7) elementary schools and Queensborough Middle School (Feb. 8). The week of Feb. 11 will be the first week of full meal service at all three schools, according to a staff report.
“For Phase 1 we will be monitoring the program, doing a significant menu analysis on the offerings that we’ll be providing to students and then we’ll look at some perceived barriers to access,” said Quirina Gamblen, the district’s director of programs and planning.
Phase 2 of the program is set to begin in September 2019. First up, on Sept. 24, will be Fraser River Middle School and Lord Tweedsmuir and Connaught Heights elementary schools.
F.W. Howay and Richard McBride elementary schools and Glenbrook Middle School will follow on Nov. 5, 6 and 7, respectively.
Students at Herbert Spencer and Lord Kelvin elementary schools will have to wait until January 2020 to take part in the program. (Schools with existing food programs will continue to operate until they change over.)
The final school that will be folded into the new program will be New Westminster Secondary School, and that’s because the school nourishment team will be developing a program specific to the high school, according to the report.
New Westminster’s school nourishment program is moving ahead in partnership with the University of B.C., University of Saskatchewan and Fraser Health. The group recently received a $25,000 grant from the social sciences and humanities research council. The money will be used to develop evaluation tools to help support the long-term “success of the new school lunch program and to provide information to the education and health sectors,” according to the report.
“That is so we can actually look at the program and evaluate the program because it is the first one in the province of British Columbia in a public school,” Gamblen added.
For more on this new program, go to newwestschools.ca and search ‘school nourishment’ to download the executive summary. More information on menu options and cost will be made available at a later date.
