School Meal Program Guidelines
Applications for Free and Reduced Price Meals
Free and Reduced Applications are given to students the first day of school and/or at school registration. Applications are to be completed ONE PER HOUSEHOLD and returned to school by the oldest school age child in the household. In order to insure that each student in the household receives the correct meal benefits, each student must be listed on the household application. The application must be correctly completed and signed by the adult household member. Failure to return a correctly completed application can result in the denial of free or reduced price meals to the student. Students are only allowed to eat on the previous years’ approval status up to the first thirty days of the new school year. If a new application is not submitted and approved, the student will pay full price for school meals. As a reminder, Free and Reduced Applications may be submitted anytime during the year when the household experiences a change in size and/or income.
School Meal Payment Policies
ALL SCHOOL MEALS MUST BE PAID IN ADVANCE--NO CHARGING IS ALLOWED. This policy is for everyone--students, teachers, staff and visitors. No charging will be allowed. Prepayment for meals by the day, week, month or year is required. It is the parent’s responsibility to provide money for meals at school, a bag lunch or to seek free or reduced price benefits. Parents seeking free or reduced price meals are responsible for all meal payments until the application is approved. If a student has no money in their meal account, a reimbursable meal will not be served to the student. The cafeteria manager may be contacted regarding the student’s account balance.
NSF Checks
If one (1) non-sufficient fund check is received for one household, only cash or money order will be accepted for payment of meals thereafter. To insure that all checks for meal payments clear the bank prior to the end of school, no checks will be accepted after Friday of the first week in May.
Refunds
The computer software used by school food service at each school tracks meal payments and meal purchases. Cash payments and check amounts and numbers are recorded. At the end of the school year, account balances will automatically carry forward to the next school year. If a student is moving out of the school system or a refund is desired at the end of the school year, a written request including name and correct mailing address must be given to the manager. A refund check will be mailed within 30 days.
Special Diet Requests
The school nurse will need to be contacted to receive a DIET PRESRIPTION REQUEST for MEALS at SCHOOL form. When the form is returned correctly completed by the physician, the diet request will be forwarded to the Child Nutrition Department for evaluation. A determination will be made as to whether or not substitutions will be made. Until such determination is made, parents may be required to send their child’s meals to school. Diet prescription requests must be made each school year. |
