Mount Royal Collegiate: It Takes a Community

07.12.2022

3 mins read

Saskatoon’s Mount Royal Collegiate offers a unique program where students, staff and community partners work together to provide, prepare and serve breakfast daily.

Mount Royal Collegiate in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has a population of approximately 700 students in grades 9 to 12. The school offers a unique breakfast program, where students, staff and community partners work together to provide, prepare and serve breakfast daily. Students can eat from about 8:30 a.m. until the first period begins at 9:15 a.m. Breakfast is offered again after the first period (around 10 a.m.) to ensure that students who did not have an early class can still start the day with a nutritious meal.

Mount Royal offers a grab-and-go model that is served out of a small window located at the main entrance of the school. From an initial 80 breakfasts a day in spring of 2021, the school is now serving approximately 180 students daily!

The grab-and-go model offers a variety of foods. A typical morning breakfast includes a sandwich (with a halal option), fruits/vegetables, yogurt, milk and cereal. Students can choose to take one or all items with them as they pass by.

Student involvement

Mount Royal offers a specialized program known as Alternative Education Work Studies. This program prepares students to be workplace-ready. Students in this program help prepare meals and snacks for the school’s student nutrition programs. This gives them hands-on experience prepping and serving food and increases their job readiness.

Community partners

Mount Royal has developed strong partnerships with local suppliers. Through these partnerships, they receive regular donations to support student nutrition programs. A huge shout-out to our community partners, Federated Co-op and Thomas Fresh, for everything they do. Every week, Federated Co-op provides the school with yogurt, cheese, cereal, eggs, granola bars and produce, while Thomas Fresh delivers two cases of fresh fruit.

Celebrating Mount Royal’s champions

Every breakfast program has its champions and Mount Royal is no exception. Today, we would like to honour Jean, Rachelle and Kim, three members of our amazing team.

Here is what Mount Royal’s community school coordinator, Melinda Brown, had to say about them:

Jean has been part of student nutrition programs for more than five years. She is hands-on and serves meals to students daily, as it is an important way to make connections with them. She is the happy face that welcomes and greets them each day. She is an inspiration to students in helping them believe they can do it. Jean is a true champion of the breakfast program. Not only does she encourage students to participate in making the food, but she also gets their ideas on how to make items tastier and more attractive.
Rachelle has also been part of student nutrition programs for more than five years. She has an amazing, charismatic and magnetic personality. Her bright smile and friendly demeanour are what makes our students feel so comfortable and accepted at the breakfast program. Rachelle’s contributions to providing healthy nutrition to students is immeasurably valuable work. We have not thanked her enough. Her dedication is essential to what we do.
Kim started at Mount Royal late last year and has been supporting the student breakfast program ever since. She brings an exuberance and joy to the program that helps our students feel comfortable and confident choosing a meal, knowing that no judgement is being passed on anyone requiring our program support.

Thanks to Mount Royal for taking the time to tell us about their breakfast program. It is really inspiring to see how the community can come together to offer such a fantastic service.

Photo of Kim at the servery (taken during a visit in June 2022)