Results from a pilot nutrition program that first launched at 33 schools in the province last year, including Fairview Elementary School in Red Deer, show an overwhelmingly positive response as the school nutrition program now rolls out to every school board in the province this school year.

Last year Fairview Elementary served up breakfast and lunch to its 230 students in pre-k to grade 5 and also made grab and go snacks available at the end of the day.

They've tweaked their program this year to include a grab and go breakfast, and full lunch program.

Principal Kim Walker says she's seen a change in engagement for kids, before the pilot started Walker recounts seeing one student in her office most afternoons as he had difficulty remaining in class.

“Just before the program started I said to him ‘I hadn’t had my lunch so would he eat with me, could I get him a sandwich’, and at that time I had some extra cheese sandwiches  in the building, so he ate 3 cheese sandwiches and 2 yogurt and he pushed away the little cookies that I offered him.  So it told me that he was hungry, and it told me that he was seeking mineral input almost so when that program started, when the nutrition program started, I never saw him again in the office in the afternoons”.

Walker says the program opens the door for teaching about healthy food and the choices we make, and she see's huge long term benefits for kids.

Students have embraced creativity built into the program with "try something different on your toast Tuesday's".

“We had a coordinator at the school ensure that we would have a nutritionist view of what we could put on toast, just to give kids options, for instance once of the hits last year was avocado with tomato slices on toast, another was cream cheese with an apple on top.  So it just gave kids an opportunity to see different choices rather than peanut butter filled with sugar or just to step outside of the box to try something new”.

Another popular part of the program according to Walker was smoothie days were English as a second language learners prepped the food and made smoothies once a month for the entire school using a recipe from the nutritionist, smoothies filled with proteins, lentils and more, and it’s something the students look forward to every month.

Walker says while the program has been a huge success, it's not without its challenges.

With a diverse student population at the school, children from 70 different cultural backgrounds, they have to look at Halal options which are more expensive and often come with accessibility issues, but they work hard to create a well-balanced menu full of options for all students.

Surprisingly some of the most popular items on the school’s menu have been a boiled egg and cheese and cracker stack and egg salad sandwiches.