It is the District’s intent to ensure all students have access to healthy and nutritious food regardless of income levels. The District acknowledges that at times there may be financial barriers that prevent families from being able to pay for meals in a timely manner. As a result, the District has established the following framework to outline its procedures for the management of food service meal charges.

Obtaining Financial Assistance

Families in financial need will be provided an application to determine eligibility for the free and reduced meal program. Applications are available by contacting the student’s school building, the district office, or through on the website.

Lunch Charges

Students will be allowed to charge foodservice costs to their student account for reimbursable breakfast and lunch meals only. Parents/Guardians are responsible for paying all meal charges on the student's account. The District does not permit students to charge any amounts for a la carte items (snacks, beverages, etc.). Parents wishing to not allow charged meals can request so by contacting the building office.

Communication

The District will provide written notification to all parents at the beginning of each school year of these procedures through the annual notification to all parents. In addition, the District will send weekly notifications through Skyward to all families via email when their balances become negative, or for outstanding fines and fees owed. The District will also send an automated call out to families on a weekly basis informing them of negative balances.

This low balance alert sends an email to the main family contact when the student balance falls below $5.00. Families also have the ability to pay their foodservice charges online through the same family access portal.

Collections Process

Returned payments will be removed from the available food service balances for affected students. Families with more than $25.00 in total outstanding fines and fees will be subject to the District’s collections process. The district will send written notices at 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days past due. The final notice will include a communication that the charges will be sent to the District’s collections agency (Fairway Collections) if payment arrangements are not made prior to 120 days past due.

Families can contact the individual school buildings or the Business Services Department to make payment arrangements for outstanding student fees or Food Services Department for outstanding food service charges. When setting up payment plans, the District will consider the family's available resources, and the amount of the outstanding debt to determine the payment levels and time period for which payments are to be due.

Remaining Food Service Balance

Upon withdrawal from the district, amounts remaining on account for students over $5.00 will be automatically refunded to the family by the District Accounting Department. Prior to refunding any credit balances owed, the Accounting Department will check to ensure no other household family member has any negative balances within foodservice. The Accounting department will also check to ensure no outstanding student fees are still owed by the student. If fees still owing, the food service refund will be applied to outstanding fines and fees, and any remaining balance will be refunded to the primary guardian on record.

For any amounts remaining under $5.00, the district will remit funds directly to the Department of Revenue Unclaimed Property Division after 3 years, unless a parent specifically requests to receive a refund.

All families leaving the district will have an option to donate residual food service balances to a building lunch buddy fund. This fund will be administered by the Food Services Director and Building Administrator (or approved designee) at each location.