Amherst families with teenagers at Amherst Regional High School will have access to healthy, affordable lunches starting this September, as the Province of Nova Scotia expands its school lunch program to every high school in the province. The move completes a three-year rollout that now puts lunch on the table for over 133,000 students at all 372 public schools across Nova Scotia.
Province of Nova Scotia officials say the program has already served more than 12 million meals since it launched in elementary schools back in October 2024 and then moved into junior high schools last year. For Amherst, the change is concrete: Amherst Regional High School at 190 Willow Street, which until now has only had a breakfast program, will begin offering the full lunch program when classes resume in September.
The program runs on a pay-what-you-can model, with meals priced at a maximum of $6.50 each. Families can choose to pay the full amount, a reduced amount, or nothing at all, with privacy built into the online ordering system so students are not singled out. During the first year, only two per cent of participating families paid full price.
The province is putting more than $100 million into the school food program for the 2026-27 school year, up from roughly $80 million last year. The federal government is also chipping in about $12.4 million over three years through Canada’s National School Food Program to support the expansion.
High schools will mostly run their own kitchens rather than relying on outside vendors, which the province says gives them the flexibility to meet the tastes and nutritional needs of older students. Still, the program has faced some criticism from parents who have raised concerns about food quality, portion sizes, and how well the meals accommodate dietary needs like gluten-free or halal options.
For Amherst, the arrival of the lunch program at the regional high school means fewer families will have to cover the cost of midday meals out of pocket this fall, and students who previously had only a breakfast program will now have a reliable lunch option during the school day.
