School lunch fees and lunch programs in Winnipeg

17 Aug

IMG_20140903_164738If you live in Winnipeg and have a child of school age – you’re probably very familiar with the lunch fees. But maybe not, depending on which division they’re in – that can be pretty confusing.

And by lunch fees or lunch program I don’t mean anything to do with paying for actual food. It’s the fees we pay for the children to be allowed to stay at school and be supervised while eating the lunch that you have prepared.

Every school and division has different rules and prices. It can go from as little as $0 in some places to close to $300 in some divisions.

And the level of supervision or lunch time perks really varies too. In some schools there are designated lunch rooms with a supervisor, other schools the kids eat at their desks in the classroom and there’s a supervisor that walks the halls. Some schools you might get access to a microwave – some the lunches have to be cold.

These fees are to cover the cost of supervision – it doesn’t matter if your child is unable to go eat at home (bus, no one home etc.), everyone pays.

Most schools have payment plans for the fees, and some even have discounts if you have several kids at the same school. One thing I’ve always wondered about is who covers the cost for the kids whose parents never pay the fees? I’m assuming there’s a lot that don’t pay, our school sends home reminders and has robocalls during the entire year, even though the payment is due in September.

If you’re unhappy with the cost or the service provided it’s a great idea to contact the school, parent committee or school division to find out what can be done. I know every year in the fall people are pretty shocked with new kids to find out what they’ll have to pay for that service. And most people who aren’t in the paying schools seem to think the lunches are included – wouldn’t that be great!

I’m ok with the school fees we pay, they’re quite low in comparison to most and we chose to have the kiddo eat at school instead of at home – thought it would be too rushed going back and forth, and it’s the time for her to socialize, join groups at school etc.

How much are your school lunch program fees? What is included and what are your thoughts on all of this? If you aren’t in Winnipeg, how are lunch times covered in your area? And is there anything you’d want to see change with the lunch program at your school?

33 Replies to “School lunch fees and lunch programs in Winnipeg

  1. My kids go to ecole RGH Bonnycastle – lunch fees are $220 per year per child. Kids eat in the classroom, no microwaves, generally one supervisor per classroom while they eat and go outside.

  2. My children attend a school in SOSD. There is no fee to eat at the school, there is a para to supervise. Milk tickets are available for purchase.

  3. My fees are $220 per year in RETSD. We have access to a microwave and adult supervisors who go between a few rooms and a few older children who help supervise in classrooms and do heat ups. I appreciate that my school has this option which I feel is considerably less than what we would have to pay someone to watch our child during lunch. We also have the option to buy milk tickets for .75 each.

  4. Fees are $230 a year. No microwave, no option for milk tickets. I personally think it BS that parents have to pay for lunch time supervision!

    • $230 a year….. Over 180 days…. Is about $1.28 per day. Who can you get to watch your kid for a $1.28 an hour!! I would much rather pay than have my child loose out on support during the school hours!!!

      • @Nancy
        She is the clearly not the only parent paying for the lunch program. Now times yiur number by X amount of students, there you go!! So the supervisor will obviously getting paid for more $1.28 an hour!!

  5. This year I will be paying $75 PER MONTH, for my children to stay in the lunch room. No microwave, no access to hot water. Just a room with TEACHER supervision and I have to pay $75 a month.
    I’m a single mother and this cost is amazing where I have other family members in the city that have children in lunch programs that cost $10 a month per child.

    This is a great expense to me and I’m very shocked about it.

  6. Our school is $250 for the year or $25 if you join later and pay per month, per child. Milk option is 10 cents per day or $20 for the year, per child. Kids are supervised, there is microwave access and the lunch program is run by the parent council, which I am a part of. Ours is a non-profit and we charge enough to cover the costs of staffing, equipment, toys/balls/games, etc for the kids to play with when they are done eating.
    I feel this rate is very fair, and we often struggle to find /retain enough staff to meet the ratios (1 staff to supervise 20 kids) to keep the program going. Occasionally, we have extra parents volunteer to help, but that is rare.

  7. Mine are at Ecole Dieppe. This year I pay $190 per kid, next year they are raising it to $200. Milk is .90cents a carton. Kids eat in their classrooms with a paid lunch supervisor. They also have a microwave in each classroom. I honestly don’t mind paying it, but I also work as a lunch supervisor at their school so it’s almost as if my first couple paychecks are to cover the cost of them to stay.

  8. I think it’s ridiculous to have any parent pay any fee to have a teacher supervise! For what I hour? Why don’t the teachers take turns while they eat their lunch and watch the kids at the same time!!! When u went to school no parent had to pay! Schools are getting ridiculous on pay for agenda books, pay for this pay for that! School taxes are high and should cover it all!!! Just my thought

    • In response to why teachers do not supervise, it is because teachers are entitled to a duty-free 55 minute lunch everyday. Teachers supervise recesses, coach teams and do many extra-curricular events for THE STUDENTS, not because they have nothing else better to do. Taxes pay for salaries, the furniture in the schools, books, utilities, photocopiers, maintenance and repairs… The list goes on and on.

      Oh, when you pay the lunch fee, it is not teachers who supervise, it is usually a parent or a paid position for that hour tacked onto another school job such as a bus driver or an Educational Assistant.

      Know your school and the division your kids, where your taxes go to before making statements that falsely represent a group of people or a program.

    • Yep. It’s part of the job. If you can’t handle a day of lunch hour supervision in a 6 day cycle, you chose the wrong profession. Sorry.

      • Not part of the job at all. A teaching degree goes towards learning how to take the curriculum and translate it into engaging and effective lessons for students with all kinds of abilities and attitudes, not for supervising lunch. Teachers already do enough supervision at recess and sporting events, not to mention all that marking and report cards.

  9. Three of my children go to king edward school. Pay 30 per month for all three to stay..milk is included in the cost of fees white milk Monday to Thursday and on Fridays they get chocolate Mike…. parent supply lunch, now if your child is still hungry after eating their lunch they will supply with a sandwich.

    I’m pretty happy only paying 30 a month.

  10. It seems so crazy that people think teachers should give up their lunch hour to supervise students at lunch time! I think the fees that are charged are extremely reasonable. If you were to hire someone to come into your home to supervise your child over the lunch hour, your would certainly be paying a lot more, probably around $12 per day at least. Yes, if someone came into your home you would have one on one supervision, and access to microwave etc., but thats why its so cheap to eat at school!

  11. I teach in a rural division, where there are no lunch fees. How could we, when such a huge population is bussed? I don’t know of any rural division that charges, and no, teachers don’t supervise, we hire (and pay) lunch monitors like everyone else, it just comes out of general revenue.

    In RETSD, city schools pay lunch fees, but the rural do not (Birds Hill). Again, b/c so many are bussed in.

    My kids attend school in Louis Riel and are bus students. My kids do not have any other option but to eat at school, since it is too far to walk and they do not offer transportation home at lunch. This is my problem with lunch fees; it isn’t convenience for us, it is a necessity and yet we still have to pay.

    Bus students should not have to pay lunch fees.

  12. Years ago I was very unhappy about the same issue because although my daughter took the bus to school and was unable to go home SJSD was going to institute a fee for her to sit and eat lunch. I was so angry . Please remember that if it is not in writing it does not exist , so I wrote a letter to the school trustees { whom you vote in} with my concern . When they looked into the issue they realized that no student should have to pay whether they are bused in or not. I urge you to get parents to write into their trustees and look up the issue on the SJSD site. Schools have money and people who can supervise without charging parents.

    • Are you charged for lunch fees for the 2018-2019 school year? I have 4 children in different schools because of a boundary change that the division put in place and made my daughter switch schools from her older brothers. They charge $180 per child with no discount for larger families and my kids are all bus students. If there is going to be a fee it should be across Manitoba not each division pick and choose what they want to charge. How can one division charge $10 a month and then the next $20 per child? Doesn’t seem like much but times that by 4 children and then 10 months and the it is insane, when we are also suppose to pay for school fees, fundraise (and if you don’t you have to donate). And our lunch program has no access to microwave and my older son volunteers for patrol (which takes his lunch recess) so why should I pay for him to be supervised?

  13. I think it’s dumb that we have to pay they have workers there already most of us struggle to pay the fees I can’t drag my 2 year old around who has a trach and is ventilated to go pick up.my other daughter

  14. to those not thinking you should have to pay someone to supervise children at lunch … are you kidding me? you parents who feel someone shouldnt be paid to watch your kids eat lunch and supervise outside would be the first to complain if something happened to your child while eating or on the playground! Most schools in the LRSD hire people outside of the school to come supervise.
    Anyways lunch program costs $120 a term and milk is available for 65 cents or you can pay $1.00 per day as a casual basis.

  15. I pay 70$ a child a year and they get a microwave. The Teachers assistant watches the kids usually one per class or one per every two classrooms. No milk. Louis Ruel school division.

  16. We don’t have any fees at the elementary and middle schools my kids go to in St. James. The kids eat in the classrooms with outside paid supervisor. They have microwaves at the middle school and milk program in elementary. I’m feeling fortunate hearing about other divisions.

  17. Hi! When I moved here, I was horrified to find out that school boards were charging parents lunch hour supervision money. A). Isn’t that the school staff’s job, and b) shouldn’t the school board be paying that? I went on a quest and met with the then President of Manitoba Teachers Society. She informed me that a collective bargaining agreement had been passed and that Manitoba public school teachers were now “contact free” lunch hours. Wow. For a caring profession , that sounded harsh. It gets better. So now teachers were to take the hour off “ But who will watch the students?” you ask. It’s up to the principal (like they don’t have enough to manage) and…. wait for it…. parent council, to decide. Parent Council??!! A volunteer job that often doesn’t exist? And, just whom, pretell , will be available to work for one hour in the middle of the day? Almost no one. And what of their training requirements? None required. (Standard criminal record checks excluded). So…. you mean to tell me my kids’ teacher checks out at noon for an hour (what other profession involving kids can do that?). And you can’t find a competent supervisor, but you want me to pay $ 70-335 of my own cash PER KID? And why doesn’t the school board pay? They don’t want to I guess. And they haven’t had any backlash maybe? called 2 random public elementary school in each province. NONE had heard of charging parents lunch supervision money. Either teachers and EA’s took turns covering lunch hour supervision OR the school board paid (as they should). Fellow Winnipeggers, .. please stop allowing this to happen. It’s not right …. no other parents in Canada are paying out of pocket for lunch supervision. It’s ridiculous. It has to stop.

  18. Does anyone know where to get a listing to compare lunch fees? (I know searching “lunch program” is no good, because it always comes up with programs to provide food!) When my youngest starts school and I go back to work, it will cost $120/month for my 3 kids to eat their lunches at school. But I’ve heard at some nearby schools, it could cost me as little as $30/month. I would genuinely consider switching school, but I’m not sure where to get this information besides going to each school office and asking them.

    • I’ve never found a list anywhere – it goes from $0 in St James to hundreds a year per kid. My daughters school is still only about $80….so about $10 a month I guess. But I know others who pay 3 or 4 times too. You’d have to phone the schools in your catchment to check I guess. Some ask for prepayment the year ahead now too – I know some people now are paying for Fall 2019…..

  19. Please understand that without Parent Council or community centres run lunch programs that cost you $1.00-2.00 per day you would all be making alternate arrangements for your children; including picking them up, daycare, private childcare. All of which cost considerably more than Lunch Program. This is a service; a service that costs money to operate. The cost of the programs vary depending on services offered and what it costs in the area to retain reputable help! As you said you don’t want any unskilled person caring for your kids because to don’t want to pick them up at lunch. Further, demanding a constant fee across the city like asking all babysitters in the city to charge the same price, and by the way give up your lunch everyday to work at your desk … why do people think they can just pawn off their kids on others for free no less. Lunch is not the teachers responsibility period.

  20. Please understand that without Parent Council or community centres run lunch programs that cost you $1.00-2.00 per day you would all be making alternate arrangements for your children; including picking them up, daycare, private childcare. All of which cost considerably more than Lunch Program. This is a service; a service that costs money to operate. The cost of the programs vary depending on services offered and what it costs in the area to retain reputable help! As you said you don’t want any unskilled person caring for your kids because you don’t want to pick them up at lunch. Further, demanding a consistent fee across the city is like asking all babysitters in the city to charge the same price, and by the way give up your lunch everyday to work at your desk … that’s what you are asking teachers to do. Why do people think they can just pawn off their kids on others for free no less. Lunch is not the teachers responsibility period.

  21. These programs are run by parent councils because the province has cut so much funding from schools. The cost used to be covered by the divisions, but when the province cuts funding the money has to come from some where and unfortunately lunch supervison is not something they are legally required to provide. So if you have issues with paying lunch fees also send messages to your MLA’s and ask them to increase school funding, go to your school divison’s budget meetings and tell them this is a priority to find the money to cover it. Also take into account that these programs make NO PROFIT! The fees you pay can only cover staffing and in some cases milk, costs vary depending on what wages they pay the supervisors, how many staff are needed. Also the parent councils that have been forced run these programs are volunteers, and without these programs you would be required to pick your kids up every lunch hour or arrange for alternate care. And the next time politicians tell you they are cutting your taxes, ask yourself where that money is coming from because the costs are just being transferred to someone else.

  22. I am okey for paying fees but removing the microwave to warm up food is so frustrating.Since some kids are born here and raised by parents with different culture and some food to be warm up . Hope they put it back.

  23. If rural divisions can figure out free lunchtime supervision so can city divisions. Period. Just learned of this ridiculous system after registering my daughter with RETSD. Anyone know if there’s a fundraiser for this? I’m going to look into starting one.

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