Lunch Charge Procedure

It is the District’s goal to provide students with access to nutritious no- or low-cost meals each school day and to ensure that a student whose parent/guardian has unpaid meal charges is not shamed or treated differently than a student whose parent/guardian does not have unpaid meal charges.  Staff will not publicly identify or stigmatize any student in line for a meal or discuss any outstanding meal debt in the presence of any other students.

Because unpaid meal charges place a large financial burden on the District, the District will take the following measures to collect unpaid meal charges.

• Parents/guardians will be notified within 3 days when a student’s meal account balance is exhausted.
• Parents/guardians will be notified that a student has accrued unpaid meal charges within 5 days of the charge, and then at least every 2 weeks thereafter until the balance is paid in full.
• Staff will reach out to with parents/guardians of students with five or more unpaid meal charges to determine eligibility for free or reduced price meals and offer assistance completing a meal application if needed.
• Staff will make two attempts to reach out to parents/guardians to complete a meal application in addition to the application and instructions provided in the school enrollment packet.
• The District Reserves the right to take all actions legally available to it to collect from parents the outstanding amounts owed to it for unpaid balances.

Students/Parents/Guardians may pay for meals in advance via www.myschoolbucks.com. Payments in advance can also be made by bringing cash or check payable to the GJSD Food Service Department to the child’s school.  Parents/guardians are encouraged to maintain funds in the student’s account to minimize the possibility that a student may be without meal money on any given day.