Daily Macro

Macro Notes - The Economics of a School Lunch Meal

September 03, 2025

Bipan Rai

Managing Director, Head of ETF & Alternatives Strategy

It’s that time of year again - the kids are going back to school.

In our never-ending quest to find new ways to ‘nerd out’ in this space, we pondered how much the cost of a staple school lunch (in this case, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) has changed over time in Canada.

To do this, we take the price indices of the two components that are tracked in CPI (bread and jam/jelly) and adjust the average retail price of peanut butter for inflation. If we index all three to February 2017 (the earliest data point that we have for peanut butter), we find that the cost of a PB&J sandwich has risen by just under 40% since early 2017. That works out to an average annual inflation rate of 4.8% - which is well above the 2.7% average annual rate for CAD CPI since then.

But what if your kid doesn’t like PB&J sandwiches? What if they prefer cookies and crackers instead?

The price of that non-nutritious meal has gone up by around 42% since 2017. We also have data going back to when we were mere school kids and find that the price of cookies and crackers has increased by 153%(!) since then.

But alas, we won’t tell you what year that was.

Chart – The Cost of a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Over Time in Canada

Source: BMO GAM

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