mEAL cHARGE pOLICY
In order to allow students to receive nutritious meals, prevent over-identification of students with insufficient funds to pay for school means, and maintain the financial integrity of the nonprofit school nutrition program, the District has established the following policy for unpaid meal charges.
The unpaid meal charge policy will be communicated to households each year so that the school district employees, families and students have a shared understanding of expectations regarding meal charges.
Unpaid Meal Charges
Students who qualify for free meals will not be denied a reimbursable meal, even if they have accrued a negative balance from previous purchases. Students with outstanding meal charges debt will be allowed to receive a meal.
The District will make reasonable, discrete efforts to notify families when meal account balances are low through use of email and letters sent home. Families will be notified of an outstanding negative balance once the negative balance reaches $10.00.
Negative balances of more that $50.00 not paid prior to the end of the school year will be considered debt and will be turned over to the superintendent or designee for collection. The District will make reasonable, discrete efforts to collect delinquent (overdue) unpaid meal charges, which is an allowable use of National School Food Service Account (NSFSA) funds, and will coordinate communications with families to resolve the charges. Options may include collection agencies, small claims court or any other collection method permitted by law and consistent with the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
District employees may use a charge account for meals, but may charge no more than $10.00 to their account. When an account reaches this limit, the employee will not be allowed to charge additional meals or a la carte items until the negative account balance is paid.