P.E.I. school food program expands menu

Input intoP.E.I.'s increasingly popular school food program has led to an expanded menu.

"There's going to be more meal options and more meal variety for Island students," said program executive director Katelyn MacLean.

New options will include a breaded chicken burger, barbecuelentil bites, a rice bowl, chickpeaparmesan and subs.

• See the new menu here

Returning favourites include mini-pancakes, chicken dinner, burgers and pizzas.

"We tend to keep the most popular items and replace some of the lower performing items with some new items," said MacLean.

More growth expected

The school food program served almost 850,000 meals in the 2023-24 school year, 40 per cent more meals than it had the year before.

"We're not expecting quite that much growth, but we do suspect that there still will be growth, especially with the changes that we made to the menu," said MacLean.

One thing that won't change is the cost to parents for the meals.

It will remain a pay-what-you-can program, with a suggested payment of $5.75. Ordering and payment is all done online, with no indication what was paid for them.

Last June, the Department of Education said it was launching a full review of the school food program, including the funding model. The pay-what-you-can system last year recovered about 20 per cent of the program's cost.

The department told CBC News this week that review is not yet completed.

Ordering for the first two weeks of the school year starts Saturday and will be open until Sept. 5 at noon. First meals will be delivered Sept. 9.