Sandra Copeland dishes up breakfasts and smiles at Carson Grove Elementary School

For Sandra Copeland, being a breakfast program co-ordinator is more than just a job. It is her career.

Every day, she wakes up early to arrive at Carson Grove Elementary School by 6:30 a.m. to begin preparing breakfast bins for students. She organizes the food items like fruit, yogurt, granola bars and cereal while also baking, portioning and preparing goods like muffins and banana bread.

At 8:45 a.m., she delivers those breakfast bins to each classroom in the school before taking a lunch break to eat and plan the next set of meals.

She then collects the bins, logs the leftovers and cleans up the kitchen at 10 a.m.

By 11 a.m., she will take a short break before heading to kindergarten duty as a lunch monitor for most of the afternoon.

“It’s a long day. But as I tell people, I’ve only got one speed: slow. It takes me about three-and-a-half hours over the course of my day, but this way I can still do (the work). I’m not stressed. My body doesn’t yell at me as much at the end of the day, and the kids get what they need to get themselves started,” Copeland told the Ottawa Citizen.

Copeland has been Carson Grove Elementary School’s breakfast program co-ordinator for the past 15 years.

A former professional chef, she prepares and serves food as part of the school’s breakfast program, which provides nutritious breakfasts and snacks to students every day.

The program adheres to strict nutritional guidelines, emphasizing fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains instead of junk food.

About 400 individual items are served daily, and around 140 kids grab a breakfast meal from the program (two or three individual items at once) every day, according to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s website.

That number has slowly crept up over the years, Copeland said, especially during the holiday season.

According to a recent Hunger Report by the Ottawa Food Bank, the number of visits to the Ottawa Food Bank’s member agencies has risen to 588,866 in 2025, an increase of 101 per cent since 2019.

Thirty-seven per cent of those who rely on food banks are children, and two-parent families are now facing greater food insecurity due to rising food costs.

The most recent Canada Food Price Report by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab forecasts that overall food prices will increase by four to six per cent in 2026. This means the average family of four is expected to spend up to $994 more on food next year.

“By mid-month, my numbers will be higher, and the numbers will drop down a little bit at the beginning of each month,” Copeland said.

“With the holidays coming up, we’re really trying to plan to make sure kids get something to get them through that break as well. … But overall, over the past few years, the numbers have gone up.”

Rising food costs, tighter budgets

The rising food costs also mean Copeland has to budget her groceries for the program meticulously.

The program is funded through the Ottawa Network For Education (ONFE), and Copeland says she has a monthly budget of around $2,500 to $3,000.

“Which seems like a lot, but it works out to about $75 a day or 50 to 75 cents a meal,” Copeland said.

“The prices keep going up. I did some shopping yesterday, and the price of apples has jumped by 50 cents a bag, and I go through eight or nine bags of apples a day.

“It’s scary enough shopping for a small family; try shopping for 150 kids every month.”

She added that she tries to buy produce on sale, like seasonal fruits and veggies, to keep costs down.

Oftentimes, she uses a wholesaler to buy an entire case of bananas or other produce for a third of the price at the grocery store.

“We have a supplier that delivers to the school. ONFE has a contract with them. We order items that fit our nutritional guidelines, and I place my order after I know what my projections are for the week,” Copeland noted.

Carson Grove Elementary School’s program also recently received a donation from Metro, which is expected to arrive this week.

According to a news release, Metro will be sending breakfast kits home with students to prevent them from losing access to the free breakfast program meals that they and their families rely on.

“That’s going to be absolutely amazing, because that’s something that I’ve been trying to build up since September,” Copeland said.

“I have a small program that sends food home. I have about six kids who will take food home for the weekend on Fridays, but we have two weeks where these kids will be staying at home for the Christmas break.

“For the last week of school, I’m going to send these kids home with a little bag. They can put them in their backpack, and they’ll use them up during the holidays. Metro’s bags will be part of that program as well.”

Copeland hopes the bags will alleviate a lot of stress off the parents’ shoulders.

“I know kids in our school access the food banks. Twenty years ago, I had to go to the food bank for a few months, so I know how important that is and how easy it is to go from being able to afford food to picking and choosing whether I pay rent or pay the hydro,” she said.

“Having that little bonus of food takes a little bit of the stress out of things.”

Bringing joy to the kids

The tightening budget, however, doesn’t mean the breakfasts are the same every day.

Copeland said she tries to serve vibrant colours and variety to the kids so they’re excited to eat the food. For example, she will mix different types of cereals to create textural and colour contrasts, which piques the kids’ curiosity.

She also tries to expose the kids to different fruits and vegetables. The other day, she served a girl a yellow kiwi with her lunch.

“This next week, if I’m in a grocery store and I see a yellow kiwi, I’ll probably pick it up. I’ll pick up a green kiwi as well, and I’ll do a little bag with the yellow and green kiwis,” Copeland said.

“How do you know if you don’t like something if you’ve never tried it? Sometimes I bring in dragon fruit if I find it on sale, so the kids can try a little piece of that. If they don’t like it, fantastic, but they’ve tried it.

“You just expose them to new and different things, which is important as they grow up.”

The biggest thing that brings Copeland joy, however, is seeing the kids accessing the food and getting through the day.

“Sometimes I’m just walking down the hallway, and one of the kids will run up and say, ‘Miss Sandra, thank you so much for the food. It was so yummy,'” she said.

“It’s fun, especially when there are brand new kids at our school and they come in and see we have food which they can access or complement with the food that they’ve brought in.

“I figure people always need to eat. You can do without the fancy clothes and all the extra stuff, but shelter, food and security … those are the really big things.”