Robert Smith School and Ruth Hooker School students part of new lunch program
The expansion to funding for school’s nutrition programs has been successfully implemented in the Lord Selkirk School Division. All schools are now getting more funding from the provincial government for their snack programs and Robert Smith School and Ruth Hooker School now providing lunches for students three days a week.
The school division learned about this funding before the beginning of the school year and so they did some work over the summer in order to get ready for the September start-up.
“We had to do a lot of work over the summer months to figure out how we were going to bring this to fruition. We needed space. We needed to hire chefs to come in. So, we actually stole these two from our high school cafeteria,” said Lisa Chase, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, LSSD..
That’s how Josh Hogan became Nutrition Coordinator and Paul Augst took up a role as Chef working out of Christ Church in Selkirk to cook 146 meals for Ruth Hooker School and 275 meals for Robert Smith School three times a week.
“We’ve now incorporated some of our career development students. So, that’s where we have them come in to help sort the food once it gets to the school and help deliver. That’s great. We also have some students come and help sometimes prep the food incorporating them into this. It’s been a bit of a challenge, but it’s been really rewarding seeing the kids in the schools with their lunches and some pretty happy kids out there,” said Chase.
Robert Smith School and Ruth Hooker School were determined to be in high-need areas and so the nutrition program being there made sense.
Hogan explained that he and Augst prepare food for the kids on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and their nutrition program cycles every few months. In this cycle the kids eat roasted chicken wraps one day a week, a croissant roast beef sandwich one day and bacon mac and cheese one day. Each of these meals also has a fruit component and a drink.
“Everything that we do, we try to make sure there’s a balance of dairy, protein, fruit or veggies. We always give them —whether it be a cold day or hot day — they’re always going to have a piece of fruit or vegetables. They’re always going to have a drink and we rotate between the yogurt drink, chocolate milk and juice boxes. For fruit we do apples, bananas, and oranges,” said Hogan.
It’s a tremendous effort to make meals for 421 elementary school students three times a week. On the day that the Record caught up with the chefs, they had cooked 25lbs of macaroni, 15 litres of cheese sauce, and 15lbs of bacon for just the students at Ruth Hooker School.
Hogan explained that sanitation and dietary concerns are top priorities for them when they are prepping meals for the kids. They, of course, account for allergens but dietary needs like religious requirements as well as choices like vegetarian or vegan options are also important. When accounting for these, they also make sure that the meals still look as similar as possible to the other kid’s meals so that no one feels left out.
“We coordinate with the principals at the schools. They give us an updated list, as it changes, of any student’s dietary needs, and then we just make those specific changes for those students and then label it and send it so there’s no chance of confusion,” said Hogan.
When the school division found out they were going to get the funding for this program they were excited to be able to bring this to students.
“One of the first days when we started delivering to the schools, we were getting feedback from some of the EAs and teachers, that there were parents that were actually in tears because they were so happy that we were able to help with this. It saves them on their grocery bills not having to prepare lunches for their kids and knowing that their kids are getting nutritious lunches,” said Chase.
The schools themselves are also noticing the benefit of this program on an individual level.
Kim LeMoine, Principal at Robert Smith School, said that she was very excited by the news that these kids were going to benefit from this nutrition program as their philosophy has always been to feed their students.
“The kids are able to be fed, and there’s no sign-up. There’s no calling out different families. It’s equitable for all. The lunches go out, and if the kids don’t want it, they don’t have to have it, but it’s there for everybody,” LeMoine explained.
She said that the response from students has been overall favourable.
“They’re always curious what they’re going to be getting because this is so new for them,” said Lemoine.
LeMoine also explained that this is something that can improve other aspects of their days.
“Children are not going to learn if their basic needs aren’t being met. So, when you have hungry kids, we get a lot of ‘hangry’ kids. That’s always been the first go-to when we have a student who’s having a rough day, is to ask, ‘Did you have breakfast or are you hungry?’ And there’s so many times where it’s like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t have a chance to get a bite to eat.’ And so, we feed them, and then it’s a great day going forward. So, it is a game changer for a lot of our kids,” she said.
Overall she says the program has been very beneficial to the school.
“We’ve worked hard at working out the kinks. It’s a big undertaking for our school. We have about 270 kids and feeding every single one of them in the small window that we have, we thought it would take us a lot longer to get going, but we learn quickly. And so, I think we’ve got it down pat now, and we’re able to get the lunches out really quickly,” said Lemoine.
Record Photos by Katelyn Boulanger
