PEI School Food Program Inc. executive director Katelyn MacLean is grateful for the support from the Government of Canada to feed Prince Edward Island students.
Registered dietitian Katelyn MacLean began with the Public Schools Branch in 2018 to revamp the nutrition policy and begin planning for a school food pilot program for Prince Edward Island (PEI). She had no idea back then that she would eventually play a key part in launching and maintaining Canada’s first province-wide ‘pay-what-you-can’ school food program.
“Not long after I was hired, a provincial lunch program was proposed by the Provincial Government in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, and planning for the launch pretty much snowballed from there.”
- Katelyn MacLean, Registered dietitian, and PEI School Food Program Inc. executive director
With food security a growing concern for families across Canada, there was little time to waste in sorting out the complicated logistics required to expand a school food program on PEI. The majority of schools with existing cafeterias did not have the required equipment, utensils, cookware, and food storage, to transition from frozen foods to fresh and healthier meals prepared from scratch. Other schools didn’t have kitchens at all.
“The problem we faced was securing the funding needed to purchase new equipment for schools,” says Katelyn. “Fortunately, through a collaboration with the PEI Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, and the PEI Home and School Federation, we learned about Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Local Food Infrastructure Fund.”
The Local Food Infrastructure Fund (LFIF) was initially a 5-year, $70 million initiative that was created in 2019 as part of the Government of Canada's Food Policy for Canada, an initiative to support a healthier and more sustainable food system in Canada. As part of Budget 2024, the LFIF was renewed for an additional 3 years with a new investment of $42.7 million to support food production focused projects that strengthen community food security and increase the availability and accessibility of local, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for equity-deserving groups, particularly Indigenous and Black communities. Additionally, the new $20.2 million School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF) will help not-for-profit organizations invest in infrastructure and equipment to support school food programming across Canada.
Kitchen staff in the cafeteria at Bluefield High School in Cornwall, Prince Edward Island, fill the day’s meals for the PEI School Food Program Inc.
The provincial lunch program applied for the LFIF program, which provided funding to purchase dishwashers, fridges, freezers, ovens, pots, pans, utensils, and more to outfit new kitchens and ensure existing ones were ready to serve fresh and healthy meals. These kitchens serve as “hubs” where in-house chefs within a school prepare meals for students. They also deliver meals to students at nearby schools. Funding from LFIF also went into purchasing more than 40 custom hot holding cabinets to ensure that hot meals maintain their temperature when they are transported from one school to another from hubs or from local restaurants who participate in the school food program to supply meals to schools without cafeterias.
“These hot holding cabinets play a big role in keeping food hot and safe – we were really lucky to receive funding from LFIF to purchase them.”
- Katelyn MacLean, Registered dietitian, and PEI School Food Program Inc. executive director
The program is now fully run by the PEI School Food Program Inc., a non-profit organization, of which Katelyn is the executive director. She is keenly aware of the growing need for healthy and affordable meals for students. In the first year of the program in 2020, participation was 12% province wide. That number has mushroomed to 42% of students participating, or about 9,000 students, at the start of the 2023 school year.
Katelyn explains that the program is not without its challenges like sourcing some of their more popular food items and continuing to secure funding to set up additional hubs across PEI.
On November 29, 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced another investment of approximately $7.1 million to Prince Edward Island over 3 years. The funding, under the Government of Canada’s National School Food Program, will provide over 1,500 more kids with healthy lunches, and over 800 more kids with healthy breakfasts and snacks this school year. With an investment of $1 billion over 5 years, the Program, included in Budget 2024, will launch with a target of providing meals to 400,000 more kids every year, beyond those served by existing school food programs.
“This welcome additional funding from the federal government will allow the PEI School Food Program to meet its current demands and support the continued growth of the program,” says Katelyn. “Every day presents a new challenge, but it’s rewarding to know that more students across the province are eating healthy meals prepared with local food. We hope that our success encourages other Canadian provinces to adopt similar programs.”
The Local Food Infrastructure Fund - Large Scale Projects is accepting new applications from January 13, 2025, to February 28, 2025
A second intake of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund - Small Scale Projects component is set to launch in Fall 2025.
Get more Agri-info
- Want more stories like this? Explore what else Agri-info has to offer.
- Interested in reporting on this story? Contact AAFC Media Relations at aafc.mediarelations-relationsmedias.aac@agr.gc.ca to arrange an interview with one of our experts.