Hastings Public Schools ensures students have breakfast option

Children at Hastings Public Schools have the option to eat breakfast every day of the school week at school.
The problem, according to district director of finance Jeff Schneider, is the logistics if every student chose to take advantage of the program.
“We’d have to start serving breakfast at 6:30 in the morning to get everyone served,” he told the Hastings Tribune.
Both Hastings and Adams Central public schools offer a breakfast program to all students, both those who pay full price and those participating in the free or reduced lunch program. And while all students have the option, only a small percentage of students in both districts partake.
A report recently released by the Food and Research Action Center ranked Nebraska 49th out of all states and the District of Columbia in participation of eligible children able to receive breakfast at school. The Nebraska School Breakfast Challenge was created in early2012 as a way to encourage an increase in the number of students served across the state. Schneider said the school district always encourages children to have breakfast every day, whether that be at school or home.
The district provides a hot breakfast at all school sites along with cereal, fruit, juice and milk. In January, a total of 13,299 breakfasts were served across the district with about 12,000 of those served to students who qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. Those students also pay a reduced rate or receive their breakfast for free.
The number of breakfasts served is about a quarter of the 53,000 lunches served during the same time period.
“What we’ve found is it just depends on what peoples’ schedules are,” Schneider said. “For some people, it works great for their kids to go eat breakfast at 7:45-7:50 a.m. For other people, it just doesn’t.”
Jennifer Pohlson, the principal at AC’s Juniata Elementary, said she agrees that for some students and parents the breakfast program works well.
There are many students who would have to eat breakfast very early to fit into their parents’ schedule and that would mean a longer wait until lunch. With the breakfast program, Pohlson said students can eat and not have to worry about being hungry in their morning classes.
“It’s crucial that they have breakfast, otherwise they’re sitting in class thinking about their stomachs growling and about being hungry instead of concentrating on what they’re supposed to be concentrating on,” she said. “We just need brain food to be able to learn.”
When the school is in the middle of state testing, Pohlson said they will even provide all students with small snacks to help ensure they are concentrating on their work and not their stomachs.
In the Adams Central district, food service manager Angie Nissen ensures there is cereal, yogurt, milk, juice and granola bars or other snacks available for the cold breakfast at each of the three elementary schools.
The middle and high school students have the option of a cold or hot breakfast at the high school where Nissen and the staff serve everything from breakfast pizzas to pancakes and sausage.
“We even do biscuits and gravy,” she said. “That’s one of their favorites.”
At the high school, Nissen said about 50 students take advantage of the breakfast each morning along with other students who purchase a la carte items, including bottled water and juice, cookies, fruit and granola bars.
“We start serving at 7:30-7:40 a.m. and we don’t usually close until the last bell rings,” she said. “Some kids will straggle in and get their water or whatever else they need before class.”
The number of students served is less in the elementary buildings, where 15-20 is the norm. At Hastings Public, Schneider said he’s glad that the number of students served isn’t huge. That’s because it could cause as scheduling nightmare.
Lunchtimes are staggered each day to get all students through the cafeteria in each of the buildings. If all students also ate breakfast, Schneider said students would have to start eating at 6:30 a.m. or sooner.
That’s not to say Schneider doesn’t think the district should serve breakfast. In fact, he thinks the numbers increase a bit in the winter time as students arrive to school early and decide it would be nicer to eat a warm breakfast in the building rather than waiting out in the cold for the bell to ring.
“And it’s there for those that want or need it,” Schneider said. “We don’t turn anybody away.”

Wordware School Lunch Software

Some schools opt out of gov’t-subsidized lunch program with healthier menu

After just one year, some schools around the country are dropping out of the healthier new federal lunch program, complaining that so many students turned up their noses at meals packed with whole grains, fruits and vegetables that the cafeterias were losing money.
Federal officials say they don’t have exact numbers but have seen isolated reports of schools cutting ties with the $11 billion National School Lunch Program, which reimburses schools for meals served and gives them access to lower-priced food.
Districts that rejected the program say the reimbursement was not enough to offset losses from students who began avoiding the lunch line and bringing food from home or, in some cases, going hungry.

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The Lunch Express brings meals to kids in need in rural Tenn.

“Some of the stuff we had to offer, they wouldn’t eat,” said Catlin, Ill., Superintendent Gary Lewis, whose district saw a 10 to 12 percent drop in lunch sales, translating to $30,000 lost under the program last year.
“So you sit there and watch the kids, and you know they’re hungry at the end of the day, and that led to some behavior and some lack of attentiveness.”
In upstate New York, a few districts have quit the program, including the Schenectady-area Burnt Hills Ballston Lake system, whose five lunchrooms ended the year $100,000 in the red.
Near Albany, Voorheesville Superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder said her district lost $30,000 in the first three months. The program didn’t even make it through the school year after students repeatedly complained about the small portions and apples and pears went from the tray to the trash untouched.
Districts that leave the program are free to develop their own guidelines. Voorheesville’s chef began serving such dishes as salad topped with flank steak and crumbled cheese, pasta with chicken and mushrooms, and a panini with chicken, red peppers and cheese.
In Catlin, soups and fish sticks will return to the menu this year, and the hamburger lunch will come with yogurt and a banana – not one or the other, like last year.
Nationally, about 31 million students participated in the guidelines thattook effect last fall under the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

• USDA replacing junk food in schools with “smart snacks”
• Healthier school lunches earn mixed grades from students
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Dr. Janey Thornton, deputy undersecretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, which oversees the program, said she is aware of reports of districts quitting but is still optimistic about the program’s long-term prospects.
“Many of these children have never seen or tasted some of the fruits and vegetables that are being served before, and it takes a while to adapt and learn,” she said.
The agency had not determined how many districts have dropped out, Thornton said, cautioning that “the numbers that have threatened to drop and the ones that actually have dropped are quite different.”
The School Nutrition Association found that 1 percent of 521 district nutrition directors surveyed over the summer planned to drop out of the program in the 2013-14 school year and about 3 percent were considering the move.
Not every district can afford to quit. The National School Lunch Program provides cash reimbursements for each meal served: about $2.50 to $3 for free and reduced-priced meals and about 30 cents for full-price meals. That takes the option of quitting off the table for schools with large numbers of poor youngsters.

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USDA, First Lady makeover school lunches

The new guidelines set limits on calories and salt, phase in more whole grains and require that fruit and vegetables be served daily. A typical elementary school meal under the program consisted of whole-wheat cheese pizza, baked sweet potato fries, grape tomatoes with low-fat ranch dip, applesauce and 1 percent milk.
In December, the Agriculture Department, responding to complaints that kids weren’t getting enough to eat, relaxed the 2-ounce-per-day limit on grains and meats while keeping the calorie limits.
At Wallace County High in Sharon Springs, Kan., football player Callahan Grund said the revision helped, but he and his friends still weren’t thrilled by the calorie limits (750-850 for high school) when they had hours of calorie-burning practice after school. The idea of dropping the program has come up at board meetings, but the district is sticking with it for now.
“A lot of kids were resorting to going over to the convenience store across the block from school and kids were buying junk food,” the 17-year-old said. “It was kind of ironic that we’re downsizing the amount of food to cut down on obesity but kids are going and getting junk food to fill that hunger.”
To make the point, Grund and his schoolmates starred last year in a music video parodyof the pop hit “We Are Young.” Instead, they sang, “We Are Hungry.”
It was funny, but Grund’s mother, Chrysanne Grund, said her anxiety was not.
“I was quite literally panicked about how we would get enough food in these kids during the day,” she said, “so we resorted to packing lunches most days.”

8 in 10 Minnesota Voters Support School Food Nutrition Standards

© The Pew Charitable Trusts

Cafeteria staff prepare school lunches for students.

When he signed the National School Lunch Act 69 years ago this month, President Harry Truman said that the law would go a long way toward “strengthening the nation through better nutrition for our school children.” As schools across the nation continue to implement the updated nutrition standards that took effect in 2012, a statewide poll from the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project finds that 82 percent of Minnesota voters overall and 76 percent of those with children in public school support those standards.
Pollster Memo (PDF) | Full Results (PDF)

Support for Nutritious Food in School Is Overwhelming

We asked:
Do you think that serving nutritious foods in schools is very important, somewhat important, not that important, or not important at all in helping to ensure that children are prepared to learn and do their best in school?

	Total Important (%)
Registered voters	97
Parents of K-12 public school students	96

Source: Minnesota School Nutrition Survey, February 2015

Specific parts of the updated nutrition standards garnered as much or even higher levels of support from Minnesota voters than the standards broadly. Nearly all voters and public school parents say school lunches should include a serving of fruits or vegetables, and more than 7 in 10 believe schools should provide whole-grain foods with every meal and should limit the amount of salt.

Key Nutritional Improvements Receive Strong Support

We asked:
Do you think public schools should be required to do the following with every school meal? And do you feel strongly about that?
Include a serving of fruits or vegetables

	% Yes	(Strongly)
Registered voters	96	(90)
Parents of K-12 public school students	94	(86)

Provide foods made from whole grains

	% Yes	(Strongly)
Registered voters	74	(52)
Parents of K-12 public school students	73	(48)

Limit the amount of salt

	% Yes	(Strongly)
Registered voters	79	(55)
Parents of K-12 public school students	72	(46)

Source: Minnesota School Nutrition Survey, February 2015

Nutrition standards for meals served under the National School Lunch Program have been updated regularly since the program’s inception in 1946. Since the start of the 2012-13 school year, lunches and breakfasts have included more lean protein, low-fat dairy products, and fruits and vegetables, while avoiding excess fat, salt, and calories. As of December 2014, the vast majority of Minnesota schools (98.8 percent) are certified as meeting these healthier standards.
Support for updated nutrition standards for school meals was seen across the ideological spectrum, with 75 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of independents, and 91 percent of Democrats in favor.
Seventy-five percent of voters and 69 percent of parents also support the USDA’s new “Smart Snacks in School” rule, which took effect in the 2014-15 school year and sets basic limits on fat, salt, sugar, and calories in food and drinks sold in vending machines, at snack bars, and on a la carte cafeteria menus.
Our survey also asked whether certain changes beyond those needed to meet national standards would further improve school meals. More than 7 in 10 voters and public school parents think meals would be better if prepared in the cafeteria’s kitchen instead of being prepackaged and reheated. And 70 percent of voters and 65 percent of public school parents believe that offering a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains improves school menus. Although many schools have made such adjustments to their menus and cooking approaches, others are hampered by outdated or limited kitchen facilities. In a survey of school food service directors, 96 percent of Minnesota districts reported needing at least one piece of equipment—at a median cost of $47,000 per school—to better serve nutritious foods.

More about the poll

The Minnesota statewide poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates for the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project, a collaboration between The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Data were collected via landline and cellular telephone surveys Feb. 17-19, 2015, among 500 registered voters, including 200 parents or guardians of children in K-12 public or charter schools. The margin of error on the sample of 500 is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, and the margin of error on the sample of 200 is plus or minus 6.9 percentage points.
The poll is the latest in a series of state surveys conducted for the project. Each has revealed overwhelming support for the nutrition standards that are in place for school lunches and breakfasts as well as the snack food and drinks sold separately. Similarly, a June 2014 poll showed strong support for these policies among K-12 parents nationwide.

How is the National School Lunch Program Working in Indian Country

Child Nutrition Programs, National School Lunch Program

Tanya H. Lee

12/9/14

New guidelines for the National School Lunch Program are aimed at providing the nation’s children with healthy, age-appropriate meals in an effort to reduce childhood obesity and improve the overall well-being of kids, especially poor kids, across the country.
A Matter of National Security
The federal government established the school lunch program in the early 1930s to try to prevent widespread childhood malnutrition during the Depression and to support struggling farmers by having the federal government buy up surplus commodity foods. By 1942, 454 million pounds of surplus food was distributed to 93,000 schools for lunch programs that benefited 6 million children.
But when the U.S. joined World War II, the U.S. Armed Forces needed all of the surplus food U.S. farmers were producing. By April 1944, only 34,064 schools were participating in the school lunch program and the number of children being served had dropped to 5 million.
In the spring of 1945, Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, a former school principal, told the House Agriculture Committee that as many as 40 percent of rejected draftees had been turned away owing to poor diets. “Whether we are going to have war or not, I do think that we have got to have health if we are going to survive,” he testified. Within a year, Congress passed legislation to appropriate money to support the program on a year-by-year basis and by April 1946, the program had expanded to include 45,119 schools and 6.7 million children.
In 1946, Congress established a permanent National School Lunch Program (NSLP). In the legislation, adequate child nutrition was explicitly recognized as a national security priority. The program was administered by the states, which were required to match federal dollars. Nutritional standards were set by the federal government, and states were required to provide free and reduced priced lunches to children who could not pay.

Nawayee Center School in Minneapolis serves 55 American Indian high school students. (Nawayee Center School)

Childhood Obesity Epidemic
Fast-forward half a century. By 2009, the Department of Defense reported that more recruits were being rejected for obesity than for any other medical reason. This was around the same time that First Lady Michelle Obama was taking on childhood obesity as a national health crisis.
Childhood obesity, reports the Centers for Disease Control, has more than doubled in children (to 18 percent) and quadrupled in adolescents (to 21 percent) in the past 30 years. In 2012, more than 30 percent of American children and adolescents were overweight or obese. These children are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem, according to the CDC. By 2030, 50 percent of Americans are predicted to be obese, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.
In the American Indian community, the rate of obesity is even higher. In 2010, the Indian Health Service reported that 80 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native adults and about 50 percent of AI/AN children were overweight or obese.

Nawayee Center School garden and raised bed. Students built the fence around the garden in the second year. Since then they have built flower boxes, started doing seed saving and added recycling and composting. (Nawayee Center School)

Obese and overweight children have access to too many cheap calories with too little nutritional value, leading to the paradox of malnourished overweight children. Poor nutrition, often in the form of too much sugar and other simple carbohydrates, can lead to diabetes, which is rife in AI/AN communities.
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
Michelle Obama’s child health initiative included her “Let’s Move!” exercise campaign, the first-ever task force on child obesity and her backing for the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which passed Congress with bipartisan support in 2010.
The act set new standards, which went into effect in early 2012, for school lunches. These include reduced calories, reduced sugar and reduced sodium combined with increased fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. In some cases, schools’ inability to prepare nutritionally adequate, attractive, kid-friendly meals under the new guidelines has led them to drop out of the NSLP altogether. Despite the fact that as of September 2013, only 524 out of 100,000 schools participating in the NSLP, or one half of one percent had dropped out, news coverage has been extensive, complete with photos of unappetizing meals, accounts of student protests and a good deal of criticism of Michelle Obama, who as the point person for the healthy school lunch initiative, is an obvious target.

Nawayee Center School students working in the garden. (Nawayee Center School)

Poor Children Need School Lunches
But the schools dropping out of the program are mostly schools with few students who qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches. The federal government mandates that schools participating in the NSLP provide free lunches for children from families whose incomes are 130 percent of the poverty level or less. That is, if the poverty level for a family of four is $24,000 per year, then children from families of four whose income is under about $31,200 per year are eligible for free lunches. Reduced-price lunches must be provided for children from families with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level. So if the poverty level is $24,000 for a family of four, children from families of four earning between $31,200 and $44,400 are eligible for reduced priced lunches. Reduced price lunches may cost no more than $0.40.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 68 percent of AI/AN students are eligible for free and reduced-price school lunches, compared with only 28 percent of white students. USDA data indicate that 70 percent of children receiving free lunches through the NSLP are children of color, as are 50 percent of students receiving reduced-price lunches.
The very public criticism of the new guidelines poses a threat to AI/AN and other children of color, as well as poor children in general. If the loudest voices cause the federal government to back down on the nutrition standards, the children who will be most affected are those who rely on school breakfasts, lunches, snacks and summer food programs for a significant portion of their nutrition—that is, poor children, the ones receiving free and reduced-price lunches, as do more than two-thirds of AI/AN children in public and non-profit private schools.

Students at the Nawayee Center School designed and built the garden, and they do all of the planting, weeding, watering and harvesting. The lush garden supplies food for the school lunch program. Students have learned to preserve fruits and vegetables for the winter. (Nawayee Center School)

Successful School Lunch Programs in Indian Country
Not everyone is having trouble meeting the new guidelines.
Joe Rice (Choctaw), executive director of the Nawayee Center School in Minneapolis, says his school started serving healthier meals to its 55 American Indian high schoolers long before the new guidelines went into effect. “We’re sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Education so we have a licensed food and nutrition service that allows us instead of buying food from the local district to buy through a caterer who serves healthier food in line with our diabetes initiative. The fresh food from our garden and the healthier food from the caterer mean that we’re addressing one of the two modifiable risk factors for diabetes, which is diet. We’re getting away from sugar and saturated fat and more into healthy whole foods.”
And that’s having an impact. The school screens the kids every year and those who have been with the program for a while “typically have better blood glucose levels, and they report exercising and eating more healthy foods throughout the week. We also see healthier BMIs for the kids who have been in the program longer. Overall, we get good health results.”
The garden is a kid-centered endeavor. The students designed and built the garden and decide what crops to grow. The garden, says Rice, is “reconnecting kids to the earth. I remember the first time we had some stuff from the garden, the kids refused to eat it because it came out of the ground.” It also serves as a means of teaching biology, botany, math and language. “We found that gardening could be the starting point for a very rich curriculum and for cultural preservation and revitalization.”
The STAR School just outside Flagstaff, Arizona, serves about 120 Navajo students in grades pre-K through 8. There, too, gardening is a key component of the nutrition program, although until the school can get its gardens and food safety practices certified by the government, garden produce is used only for cooking classes and community events.

Seventh and eighth graders at the STAR School shucking Navajo white corn in the early fall of 2014. The corn was then shaved and stored in the freezer to be used later. (STAR School)

Louva Montour (Diné) is food services manager. She says the school has had no trouble meeting the new guidelines. STAR School has its own garden and greenhouses, and students also work on a Navajo farm about 20 miles from the school, where they help with planting, watering, weeding and harvesting. “It really helps that they get hands-on experience working with food, from planting, even preparing the soil, composting (Our kids know a lot about composting!), the whole cycle,” says Montour.
Montour gives an example of the value of having kids grow the food they are going to eat: “We’re on our third year now using our salad bar. When we started putting out different types of vegetables, like beets, the students didn’t really know what beets were and they weren’t really trying it. But then they grew some in our greenhouse. Once they harvested them—those things are really big, about half a pound!—kids were saying ‘What is it?’ and ‘I want to eat it.’ They cleaned it and then we just cut it up right there because they wanted to eat it right there. And we let them because that’s the time for them to try it, when they’re willing.”
Beets have become a salad bar favorite, she says, as have other unlikely vegetables such as kale. Even though the school cannot yet use produce from its own gardens or those of local Navajo farmers, they are able to get local and organic produce through their regular food distributor who works with local producers.
Special Circumstances in Indian Country
Dianne Amiotte-Seidel, Oglala Sioux, project director/marketing coordinator for an ANA grant awarded to the InterTribal Buffalo Council in South Dakota, which is a coalition of 56 tribes committed to reestablishing buffalo herds on Indian lands in a manner that promotes cultural enhancement, spiritual revitalization, ecological restoration, and economic development.
Amiotte-Seidel has already more than met the grant’s requirement that she introduce bison meat, which is much healthier for kids than beef, into eight school lunch programs, but it hasn’t been easy. “You can’t just put buffalo meat in the schools. You have a lot of different steps to take and each state is different,” she says.

A child at Taos Pueblo school finished her buffalo entree first! This is one of the schools included in the ANA grant awarded to the InterTribal Buffalo Council. (Dianne Amiotte-Seidel)

In order for a school to serve bison, “a tribe has to have enough buffalo to supply the school for one meal a week or a month, or whatever, and then they have to have a USDA plant nearby. They have to be willing to sell the buffalo meat to the school for the price of beef and they have to be able to have a supplier from a USDA plant take the meat to the school. The meat needs to bear a child nutrition label. The school has to be able to have a supply area big enough store the bison meat they need for the year, since tribes usually only do their harvest once a year.”
Amiotte-Seidel adds, “The biggest obstacle is the requirement to have USDA-certified slaughtering plants, because on the reservations that I’m dealing with, let’s use Lower Brule, for example. Lower Brule is four or five hours away from a certified USDA plant. They have to haul buffalo four to five hours to have USDA certify the meat for the school.”
This is one area where perhaps guidelines should be modified to better fit the unique circumstances in Indian Country and other areas where they present a burden so severe that the NSLP fails to meet its original goal—feeding poor children—as well as it could.

Farm to School program means colorful lunch trays

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Kate Kompas, kkompas@stcloudtimes.com 12:37 p.m. CDT October 9, 2015

Buy Photo

(Photo: Kimm Anderson, kanderson@stcloudtimes.com)

FOLEY — State department officials dined with Foley High School students Tuesday in the cafeteria as they got an up-close look at the results of the district’s “Farm To School” program. The farmers who were responsible for the fresh produce being served at lunchtime ate there, too.
On Tuesday’s menu: chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy with rosemary and thyme right from the school’s garden, along with a homemade roll, squash, watermelon, bananas and more. Patty Donahue, cook manager for grades 4-12, said she based the gravy recipe off one used by the Food Network’s Ina Garten.
Foley is among more than 200 districts statewide in the Farm to School program, which serves half of Minnesota’s students, according to information provided by the state. The Foley district has participated since 2012. Farm to School has awarded money to districts to help them participate in the program; Foley received about $11,000 from the state for fiscal year 2015.
Story continues below.

Buy PhotoFresh fruits and vegetables, many of them locally grown, are offered Tuesday in the Foley High School lunch line. The school participates in the Farm to School program. (Photo: Kimm Anderson, kanderson@stcloudtimes.com)

The Foley school district gets fresh produce from Stoney Brook Farms and Novak Farms, both near Foley. Representatives from the farms as well as the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, which awards grants related to Farm to School, are visiting schools around the state.
The Foley district is buying a tilting braising pan so it can make more meals from scratch, too.
Farm to School means more prep time for kitchen staffers, Foley school service director Cheryl Pick said. The benefits far outweigh the time, though.
“The kids enjoy it, and that’s why we do it,” she said.
School officials said up to 87 percent of high school students take hot meals; Foley High School has about 1,600 students.
Many high school students at lunch Tuesday had banana peels or green strawberry tops on their trays. Students can take unlimited amounts of fruits and veggies.
“You see so much color on their plates,” Foley High School Principal Shayne Kusler said.
Story continues below.

Buy PhotoFoley School District Food Service Director Cheryl Pick, right, leads a tour of the district’s raised gardens Tuesday for farmers, representatives of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. (Photo: Kimm Anderson, kanderson@stcloudtimes.com)

The farms provide everything from sweet corn to kohlrabi for the lunches.
“It’s good to promote the fresh vegetable aspect of it for the kids,” said Mark Chmielewski of Stoney Brook Farm.
Greg Novak of Novak Farm recently sold 48 quarts of strawberries, an 800-pound bin of watermelon and cucumbers to the district. Farm to School is good for his business. His only request: He wishes Minnesota schools could start earlier so Foley could get the best of his harvest, but he likes closing out the season with the district. (And when he was a student at Foley, no, he doesn’t believe he had such healthful choices at lunchtime.)
Ellie Manderfeld, a Foley senior, admitted she likes fruits more than veggies.
“When we have the options, it’s nice,” she said.
Many of the students were busy getting big cups of what looked like ice cream at lunchtime. School officials had to break it to them that it was frozen yogurt.
Follow Kate Kompas on Twitter @copygirlkate, or call her at 259-3620.

Buy PhotoGilman-area farmer Greg Novak of Novak Farms, right, talks with junior Leo Zimmermann as Novak gets to sample the school lunch offering of the day Tuesday at Foley High School. (Photo: Kimm Anderson, kanderson@stcloudtimes.com)

Minnesota School Breakfast and Lunch Program

Program Description

The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program help schools provide nutritious meals to students each school day. These are U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs that are administered by the Minnesota Department of Education. Participating schools receive Federal and state funds for meals that meet established nutrition standards.

General Program Requirements

You may qualify for this benefit program if you have child(ren) who attend a Minnesota school (high school or under) that participates in the National School Lunch Program / School Breakfast Program. Almost all public schools and many private schools participate in these programs.

Your Next Steps

The following information will lead you to the next steps to apply for this program.

Application Process

Schools send school meal applications home at the beginning of each school year. However, you may apply for school meals at any time throughout the school year by submitting a household application directly to your school. Your school will provide you with an application upon request.

Contact your state's agency to participate.

Program Contact Information

For additional information, visit the School Nutrition Programs page on the Minnesota Department of Education website: http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/SchSup/FNS/SNP/index.html

If you have further questions contact the Minnesota Department of Education, Food and Nutrition Service at 651-582-8526, 1-800-366-8922 (Minnesota toll free), or email to: fns@state.mn.us

Burns Science and Technology Charter School - pre-pay by credit or debit card for student meals

Parents may now pre-pay by credit or debit card for student meals. Please visit: https://family.wordwareinc.com/


In order for parents to create an account, they must know their students activation code. Parents can retrieve the activation code by emailing Mrs. Harriet Wood at woodh@burnsscitech.org or Mrs. Crystal Faulkner at faulknerc@burnsscitech.org.


All pre-payments made online will instantly reflect on the students account.

Alexandria Public Schools - School Lunch Program / Nutrition Software

Alexandria Public Schools - School Lunch Program / Nutrition Software 

VIEWING FAMILY MEAL ACCOUNT DETAILS

 

 

Improvements have been made to how families access their meal account information. If you have previously registered with your family number and PIN, you do not need to re-register. If this is your first time accessing your family account in Wordware, please call 320-762-3315 to obtain your Family Key number. To register your account, go to family.wordwareinc.com and follow the instructions.

Once registered, you will be able to access your account balance, view transactions, make payments, and more.

Click here for the Wordware Family Website Instructions

If you have any questions, please call 320-762-3315 ext. 4980. 

 

Important Links

 

Keokuk Community School District Register for New School Lunch Software - Wordware LCS

Keokuk Community School District

Nutrition

The mission of the Food Service Department is to provide a variety of appealing, nutritious, and safe meals in an environment that is respectful of student and faculty needs with the commitment of a cost effective and efficient program.
NUTRITION STAFF
Sarah Wetzel, Food Services Supervisor
Phone: 319-526-3717
E-Mail: sarah.wetzel@keokukschools.org

Wordware

Wordware is our school lunch program where parents/guardians can access student meal information. One family account provides access to all students’ records in the family. Lunch balances in PowerSchool are not up-to-date. For accurate meal balances and transaction lists, sign in to your account at the Wordware Family Website.
To set up your Wordware Family Account you will need your family key. These are the instructions for creating your family account.
Click here to access the Wordware Family Website.

Iowa Eligibility for Free and Reduced Meals

Keokuk Community School District has made it easier for families to apply for free or reduced priced meals. You can download and complete an application in minutes.

• Students will obtain eligibility benefits faster
• Electronic submission ensures that the completed application reaches the district office quickly
• Secure and confidential

Download and print the Free/Reduced Lunch Program Application Form from the Student Registration page in the District Documents section.

Non-discrimination Statement

This explains what to do if you believe you have been treated unfairly. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture prohibits discrimination against its customers, employees, and applicants for employment on the bases of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, gender identity, religion, reprisal, and where applicable, political beliefs, marital status, familial or parental status, sexual orientation, or all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program, or protected genetic information in employment or in any program or activity conducted or funded by the department. If you wish to file a Civil Rights program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, found at http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.htmll or at any USDA office, or call (866) 632-9992 to request the form. You may also write a letter containing all of the information requested in the form. Send your completed complaint form or letter to us by mail at U.S. Department of Agriculture, Director, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Avenue, S. W., Washington D.C. 20250-9410, by fax (202) 690-7442 or email at program.intake@usda.gov. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339; or (800) 845-6136 (Spanish). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. ”

Iowa Non-Discrimination Notice

“It is the policy of this CNP provider not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or religion in its programs, activities, or employment practices as required by the Iowa Code section 216.7and 216.9. If you have questions or grievances related to compliance with this policy by this CNP Provider, please contact the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, Grimes State Office Building, 400 E. 14th St., Des Moines, IA 50319-1004; phone number 515-281-4121, 800-457-4416; web site: https://icrc.iowa.gov/.”

Wellness Policy

The student wellness policy can be referenced in Board Policy (504.12).

Ashwaubenon School District - Manage your Meal Account (Wordware Nutrition Software)

Welcome to the Ashwaubenon School District where we have a long-standing history of high academic achievement and student opportunities . We provide a comprehensive PK-12 educational program with instruction at all levels to meet the needs of all students regardless of their differences in abilities, interests, and learning styles. Our extensive co-curricular program enables our students to become well-rounded individuals.

Ashwaubenon is unique in the region for our world language program in which German and Spanish are offered to students from Grade 1 to Grade 12, and for being one of the first school districts to implement a community service graduation requirement.

As a district we are committed to: providing the highest quality programs, services, and staff,maintaining a healthy and safe learning environment, serving as proactive agents of change, being responsible stewards of district resources, engaging our community in the educational process, and monitoring and evaluating results for continuous improvement.

Payment Options & Account Balances

METHOD OF PAYMENT We are pleased to offer parents several meal payment options: Elementary children can turn payment envelopes in to their teachers or main office. Secondary students can turn envelopes in to the cashiers. Phone in credit card to the Business Office at 920.492.2905, Ext. 1006. Automatically withdrawn electronically from checking account or credit card. Manage your Meal Account (Wordware)  or  Pay Online (e-Funds). You are in full control of your account. By providing your home and/or work email address, an email notification informing you of the student’s name, purpose of the payment, and amount will be sent to you each time that a payment is to be processed. ACCOUNT BALANCES If you would like an itemized statement of your account, or if you would like to know your account balance, call 920.492.2905, Ext. 1006 or view your account online. Do not wait for the phone notification system to contact you, but rather, deposit monthly amounts into your family’s account. Account drops to $10 – a payment envelope will be sent home. Account drops to $0 – your children will be restricted to reimbursable meal choices only. Account balance drops to a negative $15 – the family account will be deactivated. K-8 students will be offered a sandwich and milk, at no expense. High school students will have to borrow from a friend or pay cash. MEAL ACCOUNT BALANCES ONLINE & E-MAIL NOTIFICATIONS OF BALANCE Go to: www.wordwareinc.com Enter Username and Password A statement of your account will appear. If you wish to participate but have not received your Family Key Number, call 920.492.2905 Ext. 1006. E~funds For Schools allows families several payment options. Meal payments can be automatically electronically withdrawn from your checking  account or charged to your credit card. You have the flexibility to pay at anytime through the school’s website. No payments will be allowed without your knowledge and authorization through this secure payment system.

School District of Menomonee Falls - School Nutrition Department - School Lunch Software

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The lunch and breakfast prices for the 2015 - 2016 school year are as follows:
Lunch Prices Breakfast Prices

Grades K – 5 Hot Lunch $2.10 Grades K – 5 Cold Breakfast $1.35
Grades 6 – 12 Hot Lunch $2.45 Grades 6 – 12 Cold Breakfast $1.40
Grades 9 – 12 Specialty Meal $2.75 Grades 9 – 12 Hot Breakfast $1.60 Reduced $0.40 Reduced $0.00
Adult Lunch $3.50 Adult Breakfast $2.25
Milk $0.40 Milk $0.40
Meeting the Healthy Guidelines

Every day at every school we offer a Garden Bar with fresh fruit and fresh vegetables to all hot lunch students! At North and MFHS daily salads are available with a variety of toppings on each lunch line. There is also a separate salad bar lunch line at the high school. We follow the National School Lunch Program regulations. We have all grains at 51% whole wheat. Weekly saturated fat is less than 10% of the total calories and zero trans-fat (this excludes naturally occurring fats). We offer a variety of milks including 1% white and fat free white, chocolate and strawberry. We also serve dark green, red/orange vegetables and beans weekly.

Family ID and Student Lunch Numbers

Your family ID number will remain the same year after year. Student and staff lunch ID numbers will also remain the same year after year.

SEE WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE EATING! Access your Family Lunch Account Online

Go to your school’s website. On the left hand side of the page, click “Meal Menus/Online Payments”. This is the link to the School Nutrition’s web page. Scroll down to click “Family Lunch Account Information”. The first time you log in, you will need your Family Key to register with Wordware, the Lunch Cashier System. Call 262-250-6462 to request your Family Key. Once you have registered with Wordware, you will then use your email address and a password you create to log in. We will never know your password, so write it down! This site shows your balance, deposits, detailed statement of what your child/ren are eating and lets you set your own low balance email notification level. You can also find the lunch and breakfast menus and nutritional information on the School Nutrition’s web page.

www.wordwareinc.com

https://family.wordwareinc.com/

https://district.wordwareinc.com


Lunch Payments- Please DO NOT include lunch money with any other school fees or dues!


Parents can still make on-line lunch account payments. Directions are found on your school’s website under “Meal Menus/Online Payments” then “General Meal Information and Forms”. There is a $2.75 convenience fee for online payments. Parents can also pay by check. Checks should be made payable to Menomonee Falls School Nutrition. Payments can also be mailed to the attention of the School Nutrition Department, Menomonee Falls High School, W142 N8101 Merrimac Drive, Menomonee Falls, WI 53051. Please do not send cash payments. Sending cash can cause problems. If the cash gets lost, it is very difficult to track down. Payments can be sent to school with your student as well. Your student can give the payment to the school secretary in the front office. He/she can also give it to a school nutrition employee in the cafeteria. Only at the High School do we accept cash for purchases for both hot lunch and ala-carte items. We do not accept cash in the hot lunch lines at any of the other schools. If a student brings cash, we have to take time out to put it in an envelope and then mark the student’s name, family ID and the amount on it for a payment. This slows down the lunch lines! Always remember to put your Family ID number on the check! If the family
name is different than the student’s name, please also write the student’s full name on the check. We would again recommend depositing $25.00 or more per student at a time. Our office requires a minimum of two business days to record payments.

Low or Negative balances.

We send out automated E-mail notifications. We start notifying the family when the account hits $5.00. Depending on the number of students in your account and if your student purchases ala-carte, it is possible your lunch account could go from a positive balance to a negative balance in one day. If we have your e-mail address in your account, you will get an automated e-mail, when your account is low. If you want a higher low balance level than $5.00, change your setting at Wordware under “Family Account” then “Change Settings – Notifications”. If you are not getting e-mails, contact us in the School Nutrition Department and we will try to help you. It is the responsibility of the family to keep their lunch account in the positive.

School Board Policy 761
According to board policy, if your family lunch account falls to a negative $2.00, the school nutrition personnel may give your student an alternative lunch. This lunch will consist of one serving of fruit, vegetables and a milk. You will not be charged for the alternative lunch for the first two days. On the third day, and thereafter, you will be charged $1.00 for each alternative lunch.

Free and Reduced Lunches
Families who are having financial difficulties are encouraged to apply for the Free/Reduced Meal Program offered throughout our district. These benefits are completely confidential. Only one Free/Reduced form per family is needed. Send it to the School Nutrition Department at the High School where it will be processed. Forms are found online on our School Nutrition web page under “General Meal Information and Forms” or at your school, if needed. Free and reduced families will be charged $.40 for milk, if your student brings a cold lunch, or you can supply your own drink. Free and reduced students must take a complete hot lunch to receive the free or reduced benefit or ala carte pricing will be charged at your expense. If your family receives public assistance, you may already be directly certified for free lunch through the state. We will mail your notification to you, if you qualify for the Direct Certification and then no paper application will be needed from your family.

Ala Carte items are available at ALL schools

The most common elementary school ala carte items are the extra entrée and the juice box. North Middle School and the High School have many more ala-carte choices available with options like healthy snacks. If your account has a negative balance, ala-carte purchases will not be permitted to be charged to your account. If your student is not blocked from ala carte purchases, your account will be charged, if these items are taken. Fill out the “Extras and Ala Carte Restriction Form” to prevent these purchases found on our School Nutrition web page under “General Meal Information and Forms”.

Thank you for your support of the school lunch program. As always, we continue to strive to improve our program so that we can serve you more efficiently and effectively. If you have any questions or concerns about the program please call us. If at any time you would like a detailed statement of your family account feel free to call 262-250-6461 or 262-250-6462.

Sincerely,

Ruth Ann Kiley-Wiedmeyer
Food Service Director
School District of Menomonee Falls
School Nutrition Department

Do you have family lunch system in your school yet? No ! Checkout Wordware Inc Cafeteria Program name Lunch Cashier System.

 This system allows parents to do payment for the entire family through one student. Wordare, Inc. provides e-Funds For Schools to allow families to choose a couple of different online payment options for student lunch accounts. Parents may choose to have payments automatically withdrawn electronically from your checking account or charged to your credit card. There is a convenience fee for using this program.

The Lunch Cashier System allows the Schools' food service department to manage the application process and establish student accounts accordingly in compliance with federal regulations also Students from families whose income is below designated levels and foster children are eligible for free meals or meals at a reduced rate using this system.

To determine if a family qualifies, the family must complete an application. One application per family is necessary and may be completed any time during the year. If a family participated in this program in the past, a new application must be completed each year.

Public Schools are now able to take advantage of this low-cost and reliable communications system to alert our families electronically of balances in their family meal accounts. Also you can access your current account information online – anytime.
Wordware partner with Efunds, Convenient Payments, EduTrak Software, FEEZEE  For Schools accepts payments at any time for unlimited school services from multiple payment platforms. The convenience and flexibility of e-Funds For Schools will help to eliminate last minute check writing hassles and improve efficiencies with your student lunch account. Plus, you will no longer need to worry that your children could lose or forget the money intended for deposit in the school lunch program.
With eFunds you are in full control of your account and can make a payment at any time that is convenient for you. No payments will be allowed without your knowledge and authorization through this secure payment system. By providing your home and/or work email address, an email notification informing you of the student’s name, purpose of the payment, and the amount of payment will be sent to you each time that a payment is to be processed.

This is the only and only family concept based system for you school cafeteria.

Elementary School, Junior High School, Public schools students can get their lunch without partiality in Lunchroom.

Public schools participating in the new lunch program offering Free and reduced meals, To "Do Lunch" means to let go of responsibilities, forget school rules and to socialize extensively for short time. But when you let them stand in separate lines for lunch, poor in different and rich in paid row make system questionable. It is also important that student can find ways for relax and respecting others. Some students behaves well and some behave badly but in the time lunch staff can judge personality of students as there is short time and they have to do their lunch lots of discussion, gossips etc,. A controlling leadership style invites rebellion, resistance, and a lack of self-discipline, responsibility, cooperation and social interest.  And to manage time and manpower we have developed a solution which is a result of continuous 25 years hard work.

The largest of the federal nutrition assistance programs, to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But the stigma remained, as it did for the NSLP—the second largest of these programs—which serves free-and-reduced lunches to more than 31 million students annually.

There were separate lines for paid and free lunch in most of the schools. Many students would rather forgo their midday meals than take the walk of shame in the NSLP line. In one line cash-paying students waited to enjoy a wide selection of à la carte, or “competitive,” foods. In another, low-income, mostly minority students stood single file to receive prepackaged free-or-reduced meals supplied by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).To get rid from this we designed application so that any student can take lunch from any of the counter by using their ID. Counter supervision will be guided for service to be provided for the students like paid, reduced or Free.

In survey  they found that  one-third of school districts had separate lines or service areas for NSLP and competitive foods in high schools nationwide.There were schools using diffent diffent application for their lunch program to offer NSLP and to maintain their records for claim, how so ever we have solved this problem with LCS1000 MayFlower. You can manage free and reduced meals from supervision or admin login.

There are strict rules for standards on the nutritional requirements of NSLP meals in schools and not allow non compliant food. Also schools’ internal accounting is often not kept separate, so we prepared data bridge to share data from one section to other and make Sync  between data and accounts.  Sync easily moves anything, anywhere - all the benefits of the cloud, none of the limitations, available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.

We offered solution  for integrating the lines by bringing competitive foods into compliance with NSLP nutritional requirements. It was very difficult to distinguish between prepaid cards and NSLP funds when Uniform debit cards was replaced by lunch line. The bookkeeping also changed. Whereas before, NSLP and competitive-food revenues had been lumped together, they would now be tracked independently.

The pilot survey was record breaking more and more school  are enrolling for NSLP and school revenue are increasing too. Lunch lines were similarly integrated in all Minnesota middle and high schools during school year. Official say “ this is the most effective and fast  implementation we have done.”

Due to latest changes happening in more and more school cafeterias across the country. Cheaper and better technology is allowing the broader use of online money transfer debit system, lunch accounts and fast services. New rules on community eligibility based on a district’s SNAP enrolment are poised to go nationwide in the coming school year, which should make the NSLP available for more students and potentially reduce the stigma.

Based on survey other schools  in USA are also implementing Lunch Cashier System more than 100 already working on Wordware’s Lunchroom system.

Lunchroom System, Lunch service feedback, how are we doing?

We use an automated Point Of Sale (POS) lunch system LCS1000 MayFlower in the Hershey Public School District. Each student has a lunch account and student from same family have a Family Account. This system allows students to “bank” money in their account. Money in this account may only be used for lunch and ala carte items. To access a student’s account, we use Family ID. Free and Reduced student information is automatically in the School Cafeteria POS system. A new free/reduced application needs to be submitted every year. All information on an account is confidential.  - Hershey Public School District

We invite Parents/students to checkout our services and give feedback so that we can better serve you. We appreciate your insight.