The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has jurisdiction over the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and Breakfast Program (SBP). They require each state/local school district to institute and clearly communicate a meal charge policy which informs parents and students who pay full or reduced-price cost for their meals how they will be impacted by having insufficient funds in their account to purchase a meal. USDA guidelines give jurisdiction to state/local school districts to set policies that allow schools to impose a limit on charges, offer alternate meals, or allow neither negative meal charges nor offer alternate meals.
Students whose family accounts are approved for free meals will always be served a planned menu meal without charge. They can, however, be restricted from making any charges to their account for additional food options. An application for free/reduced price meals can be submitted at any time throughout the school year. Once a child is approved for free or reduced-price school meals, their eligibility status remains in effect for the duration of the school year and 30 operating days into the following school year or until a new eligibility determination is made, whichever comes first.
Deficient C-FC Meal Accounts
The Cochrane-Fountain City School District Board may freeze any meal account reaching a balance greater than -$50.00.
Family Meal Account
The C-FC School District assigns each student enrolled in our school to a family meal account (siblings share the same family meal account). Charges to the account, and money deposited into the account, are applied to each family member enrolled at C-FC Schools. Parents are encouraged to log into their Infinite Campus Family Portal to monitor the activity of their family meal account. To obtain access to the portal, contact the main office.
Meal Account Deposits
Deposits to a family meal account can be made in the following manner:
1. You can send meal money (cash/check) in an envelope with the family name and “Meal Money” marked on it to school with the student. 4K-6 th grade students should give their envelope to their homeroom teacher who will turn it into the office. 7th -12th students should turn their envelope/check into the office or turn it into the food service staff.
2. Payments can be made online. In the Infinite Campus Family Portal, click on the Payments tab. You will have to set up banking information the first time you use this process. There is a $5.00 fee per transaction. A set of instructions is available under Food Service on our website.
3. You can mail a check to C-FC Food Service, S2770 State Highway 35, Fountain City WI, 54629.
Account Balances and Notifications
Parents are responsible to monitor the balance of their family meal account. Weekly reminders will be sent out from the food service staff through Infinite Campus Messenger. General reminders will be set up to trigger at the following different intervals:
a) $25.00 or less (Message will state your account balance is below $25.00);
b) -$.01 to -$25.00 (Message will state your account has a negative balance, no extra charges will be allowed, please make a deposit immediately);
c) -$25.01 to -$50.00 (Message will state your account is between -$25.00 and -$50.00 and you must make a payment to prevent the account from being frozen);
d) -$50.00 or more (Your account is frozen; no charges will be accepted until a positive balance is achieved.)
A family meal account will be “frozen” when the balance reaches a -$50.00 or more. Once a family account reaches an amount equal to or greater than -$50.00, meals will need to be sent from home and no charges will be allowed to the family account until the balance is brought back to a positive balance. Any student with any size negative balance in their family lunch account will not be allowed to:
a) purchase items not associated with planned menu items for the day;
b) double punch at breakfast or lunch time (eat more than one planned meal or meal item);
c)purchase an extra milk or water;
d) sign up for an afterschool lunch; until the account balance is brought back to a positive balance.
Student Meal Cards
Lifetouch Photography provides the district with photo meal ID cards for each student they take a picture of. Those ID Cards contain the student’s photo and a scannable bar code which registers to their family meal account. Students are responsible to bring their meal cards with them each time they come through the service line. If a student loses his/her meal card, a new one must be purchased in the school office. A new meal card will cost $3.00. Students who do not have their meal card with them to scan in the serving line may have to wait until the end of the serving line to get their meal.
State Required Meal Components
The State of Wisconsin requires the school nutrition staff to provide meals that meet state guidelines. The three-component breakfast meal consists of a student taking 1 grain and a ½ cup of fruit or vegetable and a third component choice from milk or a meat/meat alternative or an extra grain or fruit or a juice. A three-component lunch meal must consist of a meat/meat alternative and a ½ cup of fruit or vegetable; the third component may consist of milk or a grain or an extra meat/meat alternative or an additional fruit or vegetable. A student has the option of eating from the salad bar if they meet all three components of a state guideline lunch.
Alternate Options
An alternate option may be available for students. These alternate options would replace the menu item for the day. The alternate option will have the same meat/meat alternative value as the menu item for the day. These options provided at the discrepancy of the school nutrition staff and are served while supplies last.
Meals Served
The school nutrition staff does its best to calculate the number of meals they serve during the day. In the event that the staff runs out of the menu item, the staff will provide an alternative meal option that meets the components of a state required meal.
For any questions regarding this policy or how to set up alert preferences in Infinite Campus, contact the Foodservice Director Amanda Brakke at 608-687-8866.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
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