Nova Scotia served more than 4.7M lunches to students last school year

The Nova Scotia School Lunch Program served thousands of students in 2024-2025. (Source: Province of Nova Scotia)

Nova Scotia served more than 4.7 million lunches to students in the first year of its school food program, which is aiming to expand across the province in the fall.

The province says the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program was available to more than 75,000 students in 256 schools during the 2024-2025 academic year.

The bulk of the orders in the program came from the Halifax Regional Centre for Education, which served nearly two million lunches. The most popular item was cheese pizza, which had 390,000 servings.

West Bedford School ordered the most lunches at 73,000 while Pleasant Bay School in Inverness County saw the highest consistent program participation at 80 per cent of the students.

“I am thrilled with the success of the first year of the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program and can’t wait for school communities to see a bigger and better program next fall,” said Brendan Maguire, minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, in a news release.

Nova Scotia is receiving $12.4 million over three years through the National School Food Program to enhance school food initiatives.

Next school year, the province is spending $80 million on the program, which is expanding to all middle and junior high schools, serving more than 104,000 students at 334 schools.

The program will also make changes this fall, including:

• improved delivery and service standards
• sustainable packaging
• kid-approved menu options
• a more seamless ordering experience

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page