Connecting Students to Agriculture
As all funding for school food programs is now held in school districts through Feeding Futures, the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program will be transitioning to a district-funded model in the 2024/25 school year.
The School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program has received some provincial funding to support this transition and to maintain product distribution through to December 31, 2024. To continue receiving BC grown fruits, vegetables, dairy and nutritious products throughout the entire school year, schools and/or districts can use their Feeding Futures funding to purchase the products available through this program, delivered directly to each school at no extra charge.
Over the past year, we have expanded and evolved our program. There is an opportunity for schools to participate every week and receive multiple varieties with each order. Products are BC grown and support your Feed BC goals to use more BC products in your school food programs.
Click here to find out more, including products and costs.
Click here to complete and submit your signed contract for the coming school year. This must be completed by June 7th to lock in pricing for the duration of the school year and to plan your distribution schedule to best suit your needs.
Please reply by email to help@aitc.ca with a signed contract before June 7,2024 or call the BCAITC team at 1-866-517-6225.
Once we have confirmed the number of schools and districts that will continue to participate in the School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program on June 14, 2024, we will follow-up with further information regarding the delivery of the program in 2024/25.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Education and Child Care.
Sign Us Up!
As all funding for school food programs is now held in School Districts through Feeding Futures, the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program will be transitioning to a district-led and funded model in the 2024/25 school year.
The BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program supports schools to achieve their Feeding Futures goals by sourcing local food at bulk prices from BC farmers and providing regular deliveries of BC fruit, vegetables, dairy and proteins through our distribution network to all corners of the province. Through this past year, we have undertaken the work to begin to modify our program, including the kind of products available and expansion of the number of weeks of the program to 24 weeks, with multiple products available in each of these weeks.
That means we can get BC food at 30% lower cost and can make your school dollars go further.
But we need your help as it takes planning to secure these prices and maintain the delivery system!
We will continue to work closely with you and how to ensure the program is meeting the needs of your school.
What does this mean for you? We need to know before June 7th if you are committed to working with us and BC Farmers to continue receiving fresh BC products.
Why is this commitment needed in June?
- We order all products at the beginning of the summer to secure the volume required for schools at bulk prices.
- We need to know if a sufficient number of schools/districts are committed to buying fresh fruits, vegetables and nutritional products to ensure we have the necessary demand to allow minimum buy requirements for bulk purchases and continue our service.
- We need this commitment by June to proceed with contracts for Farmers, and delivery partners for the school year.
In order for students/schools to continue receiving fresh BC products delivered direct to school, we are asking schools and/or school districts to commit to one of the options by June 7th, 2024.
School signs a school contract to participate in one of the following before June 7, 2024 (or a district contract for a number of schools)
A) 12-week program (every second week) for _ number of students. The estimated number of students can fluctuate by 10%over the school year.
B) 24-week program (weekly) for _ number of students. The estimated number of students can fluctuate by 10% over the school year.
As part of the contract, for either A) or B), you will be committing to a $1500.00 deposit which is payable on commencement of the program on September 3, 2024. This will become a credit which is applied to the first invoice. Invoices will be issued to the school every two months beginning in October 2024.
The products will be offered at $0.85 per serving, including delivery to the school.
Cost calculation: number of students x 12 (or 24) weeks x $.85 per serving = cost
The servings will be a blended mix of seasonal products noted below, delivered directly to the school.
Potential products: Baby Carrots, Blueberries, Mandarin Oranges, Mini Cucumbers, Strawberries, Marble Cheddar Cheese Sticks, Coronation Grapes, Mozza Cheese Sticks, Pears (Bartlett, Bosc, Anjou, Organic) Apples (Ambrosia, Gala, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Organic, Pink Lady, Royal Gala, Spartan) Tomatoes (Grape, Cherry, Mini San Marzano, Cabernet, Yellow Cherry) Snap Peas, Mini Peppers.
Additional products available to order (for all grades) can be: Milk single serve, Yogurt single serve, Cheese Sticks (Marble and Mozza), Single Hard Cooked Eggs.
Please reply by email to help@aitc.ca with a signed school contract before June 7, 2024 or call the BCAITC team at 1-866-517-6225.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Education and Child Care.
A Crop of Resources!
We provide a number of resources specific to the BC School Fruit & Vegetable Nutritional Program (BCSFVNP) so that teachers can use the classroom produce deliveries as an opportunity to link to the curriculum and teach about healthy eating, BC agriculture, and farm-food connections.
Student/Parent Brochure
Every participating student will receive a program brochure to take home. It provides parents/guardians and students with information about the fresh fruit and vegetable program, along with a list of resources and websites for information on healthy eating.
Information and Activity Sheets
There are several levels of information and activity sheets available as teachers’ materials. The "Fresh Story — Primary" sheets are designed to assist primary teachers in leading their students on discussions about the colour, shape, texture, flavour, smell, and taste of the delivered fruit or vegetable. Presented in a fun and engaging manner for classroom use, each "Fresh Story" contains interesting facts and trivia on each of the fruits and vegetables, including information on how they are grown and harvested, their history, and a related agricultural topic.
For older and middle grade students, “Fresh Story — Intermediate” furthers the discussion by introducing teachers and their students to the growers and suppliers of their classroom delivery. Each “Fresh Story — Intermediate” profiles a BC grower and their product and engages students in exercises and activities related to agriculture, while also incorporating Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies curriculum. At the Secondary level, "Grow BC " is an interactive map that showcases the location of where each commodity is grown. Take a comprehensive look at the wide variety of agriculture in BC!
Primary Fresh Stories (Click on Each Image to Download Resource)
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Intermediate Fresh Stories (Click on Each Image to Download Resource)
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Posters
Our posters are also great for displaying and making connections to agriculture in your classroom:
What Does It Take to Produce Food
We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Education and Child Care.
Partners Make It Possible — Thank You!
The BC School Fruit & Vegetable Nutritional Program (BCSFVNP) would not be the success it is today without the continued support of our partners in the agricultural industry. With their efforts and teamwork, we are reaching over half a million BC students who enjoy the taste of fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and egg products. Together, we will keep spreading the word to teachers and their students about BC agriculture and the benefits of healthy eating.
Government:
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food
BC Ministry of Education and Child Care
Distribution:
Bandstra Transportation Systems Ltd.
DSKD Transport
DW Winland
H&G Contracting
I.D. Works Delivery Services Ltd.
Mayne Island Courier
Nootka Sound Service Ltd.
North Island Delivery Services
Ootsa Air
PJY’s Services Ltd.
Pender Harbour/Madeira Park IGA
Shop Easy Hagensborg Mercantile
Tru Value Foods Pender Island Driftwood Centre
Vi & Cor’s Food Basket
Product Suppliers:
Cawston Cold Storage
Join Us!
To find out how you or your business can support this exciting program, contact BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation or check out our Partnership Opportunities.
Teachers and Parents Ask the Best Questions
We have some Frequently Asked Questions on the changes to the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program, we thought we would share the answers with all of you!
There is a new school food district-funded model called “Feeding Futures” in our province and we are aligning with that. BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program has not received funding for the usual program or product this year nor going forward.
The funding provided is to support transition to the new model, ensuring that regardless of location in BC the cost is only $.85 per serving per student.
The delivery options for schools are 12 weeks (every second week) or 24 weeks (every week) of the program. If you would like to alter those options, please phone our office to see if it is possible.
The products costs vary, as does the seasonal products available, so to maintain a predictable cost for the school year and predictable delivery in 12 and 24 weeks we do the work to provide variety and consistent delivery of products. If your school District opted for the delivery by cases, there is a choice of product.
Milk is now available for all grades, and it can be the second product or only product you choose to order each week for $0.85 per serving. You could also add, hard cooked eggs, cheese, yogurt for additional products at $0.85 per serving.
We need to know if a sufficient number of schools/districts are committed to buying fresh fruits, vegetables and nutritional products to ensure we have the necessary demand to allow minimum buy requirements for bulk purchase and continue our service We order all products at the beginning of the summer to secure the volume required for all schools at bulk prices. That means we can get BC fresh food at 30% lower cost and can make your school food dollars go further. The price stays the same all school year. We need this commitment by June to proceed with contract for Farmers and delivery partners for the school year.
If we don’t get responses from enough schools by June 7th we cannot continue the program.
The contract commits your school /district for the full year so we can maintain these prices and delivery consistency. We allow a 10% window of change for student number change, illness, or school closure. The billing is every 2 months to allow us to credit you for unforeseen delivery or product problems and assist you with your budget allocation.
No, you are only required to pay your total owing, if it is less than the deposit cost.
We will have to look at the schools that are ordering for less than 50 students. If that is the only school in the district, we will not be able to go there – it only works if the truck is already on the road in that district. Otherwise, the distribution cost would be prohibitive. Please call our office to discuss.
