Unpaid Meals Charge Policy
Policy Code - EEAC
Policy name - Student Charged Meals
CLEVELAND SCHOOL DISTRICT
MEAL CHARGE POLICY
- Purpose
The goal of Cleveland School District is to provide students with healthy and nutritious meals each day.
However, unpaid charges place a large financial burden on our Food Services Department. The purpose of this policy is to insure compliance with federal reporting requirements for the USDA Child Nutrition Program, and to provide oversight and accountability for the collection of outstanding student meal balances. The intent of this policy is to establish uniform meal account procedures throughout the Cleveland School District. The provisions of this policy pertain to regular priced school breakfast and lunch meals only. While the USDA Child Nutrition Program does not require that a student who pays for regular priced meals be served a meal without payment, Cleveland School District provides this policy as a courtesy to those students in the event that they forget or lose their lunch money.
- Policy
Full Pay Students
Full pay status students will pay for meals at the district’s published standard rate each day. A student will be allowed to charge a maximum of ten (10) meals to their account after the balance reaches zero. Once a student has charged those ten meals, he/she will not be allowed to charge a la carte items, however he/she will be offered a designated menu alternate. Example: Soybutter and jelly sandwich, veggie sticks, fruit and milk. This designated menu alternate will be charged to the child’s meal account at the standard rate.
Free Meal Benefit
Free status students will be allowed to receive a free breakfast and lunch each day. A la carte purchases must be paid in cash or paid in advance via www.myschoolbucks.com.
Reduced Meal Benefit
Reduced status students will be allowed to receive a breakfast for $.30 and lunch for $.40 each day. A student will be allowed to charge a maximum of ten (10) meals to their account after the balance reaches zero. Once a student has charged those ten meals, he/she will not be allowed to charge a la carte items, however he/she will be offered a designated menu alternate. Example: Soybutter and jelly sandwich, veggie sticks, fruit and milk. This designated menu alternate will be charged to the child’s meal account at the reduced rate.
Parents/Guardians are responsible for meal payment to the food service program. Notices of low or deficit balances will be sent to parents/guardians at regular intervals during the school year. If the account remains deficit, there will be attempts to contact parents/guardians via the telephone.
All school cafeterias possess computerized point of sale/cash register systems that maintain records of all monies deposited and spent for each student and said records are available by setting up an account at www.myschoolbucks.com or by speaking with the cafeteria manager.
Students/Parents/Guardians may pay for meals in advance via www.myschoolbucks.com or with a check payable to Cleveland Child Nutrition. Further details are available on our webpage at www.cleveland.k12.ms.us. Funds should be maintained in accounts to minimize the possibility that a child may be without meal money on any given day. Any remaining funds for a particular student will be carried over to the next school year.
Refunds for withdrawn, and graduating students; a written request for a refund of any money remaining in their account must be submitted. An e-mail request is also acceptable. Students who are graduating at the end of the year will be given the option to transfer to a sibling’s account with a written request.
Unclaimed Funds must be requested within one school year. Unclaimed funds will then become the property of the Cleveland School Food Service Program.
Balances Owed
Parents/guardians will be contacted via mail and telephone in attempts to resolve owed balances.
If a student is without meal money on a consistent basis, the administration will investigate the situation more closely and take further action as needed. If financial hardship exists, parents and families are encouraged to apply for free or reduced priced meals for their child(ren) by going to www.cleveland.k12.ms.us and clicking the link for “lunch application.”
2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E (Section 200.426) lists bad debts as a non-allowable expenditure of Federal Funds. Therefore, losses from meals charged cannot be paid with Child Nutrition Funds.