Alexander Muir Public School is home to approximately 380 students. Our school is proud to offer a student-run daily snack program that ensures every child has access to a healthy snack when they need one. Each morning, student volunteers deliver a small bowl of nutritious snacks to every classroom. Students are encouraged to independently take a snack from the bowl if they need one that day. After first recess, the bowls are collected, restocked and prepared for the following day. This simple system allows students to access food discreetly and without stigma, while also giving older students an opportunity to demonstrate leadership, responsibility and service to their school community.

Our snacks include nutritious, child-friendly options such as cheese strings, yogurt tubes, apples, oranges and MadeGood granola bars. The program is available to all students, recognizing that children may come to school without having had enough to eat, may need additional nourishment during the school day, or may simply benefit from a healthy snack to help them stay focused and ready to learn.

Although we have a small budget to support the program, it typically runs out by the end of the first term. Our teachers and student organizers work hard to stretch the available funding as far as possible, carefully managing supplies and making thoughtful purchasing decisions. Unfortunately, as the school year progresses, our snack supplies become increasingly limited. By the final months of the school year, snacks can run very thin, and some staff members purchase granola bars with their own money to ensure that students who need a snack do not go hungry.