Privacy

Privacy Notice for Nova Scotia School Lunch Program

In order to register with the school lunch program, we will need to collect personal information from you and your child. This privacy notice outlines how your information will be used and managed. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Regional Centres for Education and Conseil scolaire acadien provincial are committed to protecting this information and following Nova Scotia’s privacy laws.

Registering and Ordering

In order to register as a parent/guardian with the school lunch program, first you’ll need to log in with your MyNSAccount. If you do not have an account, you will need to create one. This will require you to provide your name, email address and a username and password.

If you are a student, you can log in with your GNSPES email address and password.

Once you have logged in to the school lunch program application, you’ll need to provide:

  • Your name, email address, cell phone number, default language and whether you prefer to receive communications by email, SMS, or both.
  • The student’s name, email address, cell phone number, default language, school, grade, and class.

Payment and Donations

When you submit your order you are asked to pay what you can. Payment is made through the provincial NS Pay platform and will require you to provide your email address, card number, expiry and security code. After you have paid it will send a receipt to your email address.

Anyone can also make a donation to the school lunch program without having ordered lunch. Donations are also made using NS Pay and will ask for the donor’s name, email, phone number, address and business name (if donating on behalf of a business). Donations are tax deductible, and a tax receipt will be mailed to you.

Who has access to my personal information and why?

  • The Department has contracted the service provider WSA Solutions to operate the Bon Appétit platform that you register and make your orders with. WSA Solutions has access to the information you enter in the app. Depending on your communication preference, your information is also shared with either TxtSquad (for text messages) or Mailchimp (for emails) in order to send you communications about your orders.
  • Food vendors will have access to student name, school grade and classroom so that meals can be distributed to students.
  • If you donate or pay, your payment information will be shared with a third-party payment vendor as described in the NS Pay privacy notice that appears below the “Pay Now” button.
  • Your school’s principal, vice-principals and other administrative staff will have access to names, contact, and order information to oversee the lunch program in your school.
  • Some staff at your Regional Centre for Education or the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial, as well as staff at the Department, will also have access to names, contact , and order information in order to oversee the lunch program at the regional and provincial levels, and for data analysis, evaluation and planning.
  • Provincial IT staff will also have access to your information as needed to provide technical support for the program.
  • Data may also be shared with education partners and researchers under strict privacy and confidentiality requirements. This would never include payment card numbers and wherever possible, data is de-identified and used at an aggregate level to protect privacy.

What will my personal information be used for?

  • Service providers and vendors are under strict contractual obligations to only use your information in order to operate and support the lunch program and are not allowed to use it for any other purpose.
  • Your school, Regional Centre for Education or Conseil scolaire acadien provincial, and Department and IT staff will only use your information as described above. We will not use or share your information for any other purpose unless authorized by law to do so.
  • All collection, use and sharing of personal information is done under the authority of the Education Act, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and other legislation.

How is my personal information protected?

  • Your school, Regional Centre for Education or Conseil scolaire acadien provincial, and Department and IT staff take reasonable security steps to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or disposal. This includes a variety of safeguards such as policies and procedures, physical security measures, and technical measures such as firewalls, encryption, and passwords.
  • All service providers and vendors are also contractually obliged to take reasonable security steps to protect your information.
  • All information is stored on servers located in Canada and will not be accessed from outside of Canada by the staff who have access to it, with the exception of Mailchimp which is located in the United States. If you select email as your communication preference or make a donation, then your information will be stored and may be accessed by Mailchimp staff outside of Canada as needed to deliver you emails about your orders.
  • Any access or storage outside of Canada is required to comply with Nova Scotia’s Personal Information International Disclosure Protection Act.

How do I access and control my information?

  • You can view most of the information about you and the student in the Bon Appetit app when you log in to the app, including the profile information you provided when you registered and your contact information.
  • If you would like to withdraw from the school lunch program and have your information in the Bon Appetit app deleted, or if you have any other questions about how your personal information is collected, used, maintained, or shared, you may contact the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development at schoollunch@novascotia.ca.
  • For privacy information related to MyNSAccount see the MyNSAccount privacy notice at https://mynsid.novascotia.ca/auth/eng/privacy.
  • For privacy information related to NSPay see the Nova Scotia government’s privacy statement at https://beta.novascotia.ca/privacy.