'We just know that they're hungry': High school principal sees bigger takeup on free lunches

More students than ever at Montague High are taking advantage of a program that allows them to opt into a free lunch, P.E.I. school board trustees were told at their meeting Tuesday evening.

"We are feeding more children than we have ever before," Montague Regional High School Principal Robyn MacDonald told trustees during a presentation about her school.

"We don't ask. We don't care why. We just know that they're hungry and we're doing everything we can to make sure that need is met."

The students are accessing the free lunch through the P.E.I. School Food Program. The non-profit group provides lunches to all of the Island's public schools. The lunches are ordered online on a pay-what-you-can model with a maximum price of $5.50. All meals are delivered the same way, without reference to how much was paid for them.

Montague High also has a place where students can pick up free snacks, said MacDonald.

In January the P.E.I. School Food Program reported that its revenue from pay-what-you-can lunches was shrinking, and last week a new report found P.E.I. is leading the country in food insecurity. The number of children living in food insecure households rose almost 50 per cent from 2019 to 2022, to 35.1 per cent.

'Treating a symptom'

While the school lunch program is important for the students that use it, Prof. Valerie Tarasuk, a University of Toronto researcher who specializes in food insecurity, said it is important to realize it is not a solution.

"We know a lot about what drives food insecurity and what moves the needle on it. At the end of the day it's a problem of inadequate, insecure incomes," said Tarasuk.

"It's treating a symptom, not a cause, and it's not an approach that is going to change the reality. Think about families that can't afford the food that they need, which is what these awful statistics on food insecurity are portraying. At the end of the day, those children from those families go home to those homes and nothing has changed."

If researchers were to study how many Islanders were behind on rent, failing to pay utility bills, being evicted, or not paying tax bills they would turn up the same people as those who are food insecure, she said.

"An occasional free meal for someone isn't going to change that reality," she said.