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Lunch Program

At École Greenview School, arrangements should be made for children to leave school over the lunch break whenever possible. The change from the school setting is valuable for each child. However, we can appreciate that certain circumstances necessitate a child staying at school for lunch and in these cases, we are pleased to assist by hiring lunch aides to run a safe and orderly lunchroom program. As per district policy, this lunchroom program operates solely through the funds paid by students using the service. All supplies, staffing, and equipment used in the program are paid for through lunchroom fees. This means that it is very important that lunch fees are paid, and paid on time, so that we are able to continue this service. Parents will see a monthly lunch fee on their SchoolZone account. Parents may contact the school office at any time to receive a copy of lunchroom expenses.

The lunchroom program operates under the supervision of employed Division Staff. Grade one, two and three students eat lunch from 11:20 until 11:40 am, while grade four, five and six students play outside. At 11:40 am, students will switch, Division One students going outside to play and Division Two students coming in to eat. The majority of the students will be eating lunch in their own classroom. During inclement weather, students will remain in the school engaged in quiet activities using the same organization schedule.

Students bring their own lunches to school each day, but please keep in mind that we do not have microwaves or kettles available for student use. Please preheat hot lunches at home and send in thermal containers.

Students are actively involved in recycling and École Greenview School promotes a garbage-free lunch program by encouraging the use of reusable containers and fabric or hard plastic lunch kits. Students are required to bring food that does not require heating or hot water. We ask that parents send forks and spoons when required.

Please note that eating lunch at school is a privilege and a service to the parents. Each student must protect this privilege by following the expectations stated below and those in our behaviour plan. Your cooperation in seeing that your child knows the expectations and procedures will be of great assistance. The lunchroom supervisors will monitor the behaviour of all students during the lunch period and will provide students with reminders for appropriate choices. For those students who are unable to meet the above expectations the following procedure will be implemented:

Initial warnings and redirection will be provided for minor behavioral issues.

If poor behaviour continues, or for more serious issues, students will be suspended from eating with their peers and instead will eat and be supervised in the office area for a period of up to 5 days. A notice will be sent to parents notifying them of the situation.

If behaviour issues continue, students will be suspended from the program, and parents will need to find alternate lunchroom arrangements for a period of up to 5 days. Again parents will be notified of this situation in order to make alternate arrangements for lunch.

If poor behaviour still continues, the student will have lunchroom privileges permanently suspended for the balance of the school. All students are expected to follow the expectations outlined in École Greenview School's Handbook and Student Behaviour and Conduct Plan, which is located in the student’s handbook and on the Parent Connection Page of our school website (http://greenview.epsb.ca/parents).

Students who stay for the lunchroom program are expected to:

Walk either in the classroom or to assigned eating area. Attendance will be taken.
Stay at your assigned seat and use quiet, inside voices.
No sharing food, throwing objects, hitting or bothering other children.
Keep their eating area clean by placing garbage and recyclables in the appropriate containers.
Remain within the school boundaries at all times. A student is required to have written parental permission to leave the school grounds. Parents or guardians are to go to the office and sign out any child leaving the school grounds, whether for lunch or for appointments.
Refrain from bringing food items containing nuts/peanuts to school. Greenview is an “allergy aware” school regarding a variety of foods and scents - including peanuts and nuts, gluten, milk, eggs and perfumes. Ingestion or inhaling of even tiny amounts of these items could be serious or even life threatening by students & staff.

Allergy Awareness Policy

Allergy Aware means we are providing a safe learning environment for students, including those with severe allergies and those without. To help provide a safe learning environment for all of our students— we ask that parents avoid sending products containing peanuts/nuts to school. Either in student lunches or as snacks. This is no different than saying we are a peanut-nut free school, where the exact same request is made. Ultimately it is a parent’s decision if they send a snack which contains certain ingredients. We cannot tell a parent what they can or cannot send to school as a food for their child, but we can suggest certain foods or request that foods containing peanuts–nuts not come into the school.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Peanut-Nut Free Environment as we cannot guarantee that peanuts–nuts or other allergens do not come into the school or workplace. The only peanut-nut detector that is available is us, and we cannot check each lunch or snack personally every day. We chose to provide an allergy aware school through education and respect for all students, including those who have severe allergies. However, we can request that foods containing peanuts-nuts remain at home and are not sent to school as a lunch, recess snack or as treats for birthdays and class parties or celebrations.

As a school that is allergy aware, our policy is to communicate to parents and our community regarding allergies and what can be done to help create a safe school learning environment for all children. Some of our classrooms have been designated peanut-nut free classrooms because there is a child with a life threatening allergy. In an Allergy Aware school, to help support these students, some additional safeguards are in place to help ensure that their learning area is safe for them. This also includes ensuring common areas such as washrooms are cleaned more regularly to help prevent the accidental spread of allergens to children. In fact, our washrooms have all hand touch areas disinfected following all recess breaks, which is beyond regular cleaning level expectations in most schools. As well, we know that sometimes products that contain peanuts–nuts will enter into a classroom or school. If this occurs, we simply move that child to a safe area to have their lunch or snack and contact the parent to avoid sending such foods in the future.

On special days like birthdays, many parents like to send a special treat. We ask parents to exercise caution, as many commercial store bakeries have peanut or nuts in their kitchen bake areas thus they cannot guarantee that their kitchen is peanut-nut free in terms of bakery standards. If a parent brings in cupcakes from Safeway or Sobeys’ that say 'may contain nuts' etc. because they have peanuts in the bakery area, then there is potential for cross contamination in the food handling that peanut or nuts may be present in trace amounts. We request parents to be aware of the food allergy needs in their child’s classroom and if sending a classroom snack, to select a snack that is safe for all students. A vegetable tray or fruit tray is a healthy alternative to cupcakes.

It is through education rather than banning that we teach children, along with parents about allergies and helping to be aware and safe for all.

An allergy aware school can be designated a Peanut-Nut Free school for a particular year or can designate certain classes if necessary. We strive to monitor and check snacks and lunches whether they contain peanuts-nuts. However, with 420 students, this may not be possible every moment of the day, whether at recess or lunch.

For Parents of children with allergies:

If your child has an allergy be sure to contact the school office upon registration to ensure we have record of this. We believe that through proper education and awareness of allergies and support from the home, we will provide a supervised safe environment for children to grow and learn about each other, their needs and in cases of allergies, about safe food and allergy awareness.

While we try to limit the exposure to foods that can trigger allergic reactions, we cannot guarantee that these products will not make their way into the school.

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