Section:3000 Business
Policy Name:Food Service Charges
Policy Number:3542.43
Date Approved:12/8/2014
Last Revised:6/12/2017


Payment System

The goal of the food service program is to provide students with nutritious and healthy foods through the District's food services program that will enhance learning. The school nutrition program is an essential part of the education system and by providing good-tasting, nutritious meals in pleasant surroundings; we are helping to teach students the value of good nutrition.

Connecticut's School Child Nutrition Programs consist of the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Special Milk, After School Snack and Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Programs. It is a local decision as to in which programs the District selects to participate. These programs are federally funded and are administered by the United States Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service. At the State level, the School Child Nutrition Programs are administered by the Connecticut State Department of Education, which operates the program through agreements with the local school food authorities.

The school nutrition program is an extension of the school's educational programs and it is the District's vision to have a partnership among students, staff, school family and the community in offering access to and providing nutritious meals, which are attractively presented at an affordable price.

The Board of Education (Board) has an agreement with the Connecticut State Department of Education to participate in one or more school Child Nutrition Programs and accepts full responsibility for adhering to the federal and state guidelines and regulations pertaining to these school Child Nutrition Programs. The Board also accepts full responsibility for providing free and/or reduced price meals to eligible elementary and secondary students enrolled in the District's schools. Applicants for such meals are responsible to pay for meals until the application for the free or reduced price meals is completed and approved. All applications for free and reduced price lunch and any related information will be considered strictly confidential and not to be shared outside of the District's food services program. Meals are planned to meet the specified nutrient standards outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture for children based on their age or grade group.

Although not required by law, because of the District's participation in the Child Nutrition Programs, the Board approves the establishment of a system to allow a student to charge a meal.

The Board realizes that funds from the nonprofit school food service account, according to federal regulations, cannot be used to cover the cost of charged meals that have not been paid.

Moreover, federal funds are intended to subsidize the meals of children and may not be used to subsidize meals for adults (teachers, staff and visitors). Adults are not allowed to charge meals and shall pay for such meals at the time of service or through pre-paid accounts.

Charging is not encouraged by the District, but on those occasions that a student does not have money in their meal account or forgets to bring cash, it is the policy of the Plainville Community Schools that no student will be denied a full breakfast or lunch meal, in as much as proper nutrition has a direct link to learning.

In order to sustain the District's food services program, the District cannot permit the excessive charging of student meals. Therefore, any charging of meals must be consistent with this policy and any regulations designed to effectively and respectfully address family responsibility for unpaid meals.

Any parent/guardian who anticipates a problem with paying for meals is encouraged to contact the Food Services Manager/Director and/or the applicable school Principal for assistance. The Board encourages all families who may have a child eligible for free or reduced price lunch to apply. School personnel are available to assist with this process as needed.

The District uses an automated prepayment system, which allows parents/guardians to view their child's meal account balance and purchases, receive low-balance notifications, as well as, make deposits, to their child's school meal account. It is the policy of the Plainville Community Schools that no child will be denied a breakfast or lunch of their choice if there is no money in his or her meal account or if the meal account has a negative balance. Students will be issued a meal of their choice and the meal will be charged to their account. If a student has no funds in their meal account or if the meal account has a negative balance, the student will be allowed to charge a full meal of their choice but will not be allowed to charge individual meal components, milk only, or snack items. If a student has a negative meal balance and attempts to purchase a snack or ala carte item with cash, that student will not be allowed to do so until the negative meal balance has been paid in full.

We urge parents to keep track of their student lunch accounts to avoid negative balances. Lunch balances can be easily tracked on the myschoolbucks.com website, or by calling the school cafeteria or the Food Service office.

Each week, letters or email messages will go out to each student with a negative balance detailing the amount owed. These notices will be deposited in the teacher's mailbox for the student to take home at the elementary school level. Middle and High School notification letters will be sent via email, regular mail, and certified mail as deemed necessary based on amount of accrued debt. The letter will also list the methods for payments to school lunch accounts.

If a student accumulates a negative balance of $10 or more, the principal of the school the student attends will be notified and will follow-up with the parents for payment. If the student continues to accumulate a negative balance, the Superintendent's office will follow-up with the parents, or additional consequences will incur until all monies owed are paid in full. Alternate meals may be discretely provided to students whose account balances have become excessively delinquent (owing more than $30 at the elementary level and more than $10 at the middle school. Alternate meals will not be provided to high school students). The district also reserves the right to limit involvement in fee-based extracurricular activities (unrelated to core curricular experiences) until school lunch balances are paid. Further, schools may withhold grade reports and class assignments until debts have been paid or a payment plan has been instituted.

For situations involving prolonged failure by parents or guardians to send funds for lunch when no bag lunch is sent to school with the child; the District will consider involvement of social services organizations or appropriate state agencies such as DCF to assist the district in ensuring that students are receiving the proper care and nutrition they require.

All parent complaints, concerns and questions should be directed to the Food Service Management staff at 860-793-3234, which has access to student lunch histories and lunch payment records. Every reasonable effort will be made to resolve any conflicts; including options to utilize a special payment plan to ensure that students are receiving proper nutrition and payments are made in a manner that is more manageable for the family.

This policy shall be included in student/parent handbooks, placed on the District's website, on the website of each school, and published at the beginning of each school year at the time information is distributed regarding free and reduced price meals.

Delinquent Debt and Bad Debt

The District's efforts to recover from households money owed due to the charging of meals must not have a negative impact on the children involved and shall focus primarily on the adults in the household responsible for providing funds for meal purchases. The school food authority is encouraged to consider whether the benefits of potential collections outweigh the costs which would be incurred to achieve those collections.

Money owed because of unpaid meal charges shall be considered "delinquent debt," as defined, as long as it is considered collectible and reasonable efforts are being made to collect it. Such debt must be paid by June 30, effective with the 2017-2018 school year.

After reasonable attempts are made to collect the delinquent debt, and it is determined that further collection efforts are useless or too costly, the debt must be reclassified as "bad debt." Such debt shall be written off as an operating loss not to be absorbed by the nonprofit school food service account but must be restored using non-federal funds.

Dissemination of Policy

This policy shall be provided in writing to all households at the start of each school year and to households transferring to the school or school district during the school year.

This policy shall be included in student/parent handbooks, on online portals that households use to access student accounts, placed on the District's website, on the website of each school, and published at the beginning of each school year at the time information is distributed regarding free and reduced price meals and again to the household the first time the policy is applied to a specific child.

This policy shall be provided to all school staff and/or school food authority staff responsible for its enforcement. In addition, school social workers, nurses, the homeless liaison, and other staff members assisting children in need or who may be contacted by families with unpaid meal charges also should be informed of this policy.

The District's school food authority shall maintain, as required, documentation of the methods used to communicate this policy to households and school or school food authority-level staff responsible for policy enforcement.

(cf. 3542 Food Service)

(cf. 3542.31
Free or Reduced Price Lunch Program)

Legal Reference: Connecticut General Statutes

10-215 Lunches, breakfasts and other feeding programs for public school children and employees.

10-215a Nonpublic school and nonprofit agency participation in feeding programs.

10-215b Duties of State Board of Education re feeding programs.

State Board of Education Regulations

State of Connecticut, Bureau of Health/Nutrition, Family Services and Adult Education Operational Memorandum No. 4-17, "Guidance on Unpaid Meal Charges and Collection of Delinquent Meal Payments," Nov. 2, 2016

Operational Memorandum #19-10, State of Connecticut, Bureau of Health/Nutrition, Family Services and Adult Education "Unallowable Charges to No-profit School Food Service Accounts and the Serving of Meals to No-paying Full and Reduced Price Students"

National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program; Competitive Foods. (7 CFR Parts 210 and 220, Federal Register, Vol 45 No. 20, Tuesday, January 29, 1980, pp 6758-6772

USDA Guidance:

SP 46-2016, "Unpaid Meal Charges: Local Meal Charge Policies"

SP 47-2016, "Unpaid Meal Charges: Clarification on Collection of Delinquent Meal Payment"

SP 57-2016 "Unpaid Meal Charges: Guidance and Q and A"

SP 58-2016 "2016 Edition: Overcoming the Unpaid Meal Challenge: Proven Strategies from Our Nation's Schools"