Vanier’s Salad Bar

Ecole Georges P Vanier, Donnelly, AB
Grant term, 2024-2026

Ecole Georges P Vanier is located in Donnelly, Alberta, a village situated 4.5 hours north of Edmonton. Vanier is a junior/senior high school hosting grades 7 to 12. The majority of our students travel to Vanier on the bus as the community is surrounded by rural farmland and other small communities. Student enrolment is around 215 students, with a pretty even split between junior and senior high.

Our salad bar program has been a labour of love and wouldn’t be possible without the many helping hands of both staff and students alike. When applying for our grant, the goal of the salad bar was always to ensure that we were able to offer build your own salads and bowls for all students at no cost. As this was a key component of our program, planning and coordinating with our Foods program to minimize duplicating costs and reducing food waste was important.

It took some time to determine the flow of preparations as we led up to salad bar days and it got stressful in there! However, a group of high school students were instrumental in the initial and on-going success of the program. They were able to identify what tasks to prioritize, tackle them and donate their lunch hours at times to ensure things ran smoothly. Additionally, they were great at gathering feedback from our student population and suggesting alternatives.

Without the numerous programs (agriculture, foods, nutrition) being a part of the planning and action, our salad bar would not have seen the successes that it did. It takes a village!