Meal Prices and Charge Policy
Overview
The goal of every school should be to have a financially sound School Nutrition Program. To achieve this goal, it is important to ensure the income from paid student meals covers the cost of producing all School Nutrition Program meals.
Setting Paid Meal Prices and Paid Lunch Equity
Setting paid meal prices appropriately serves to minimize the difference between the actual cost of producing a paid lunch and the price charged to paid students, ensuring that federal funds allocated for free and reduced-price meals are not used to subsidize paid meals.
Only SFAs that had a negative balance in the nonprofit school food service account on June 30th of the previous school year are required to establish a price for paid lunches. All sites must maintain documentation of school meal prices.
How to use the Paid Lunch Equity Tool
For additional information, view Paid Lunch Equity Policy Memo
Non-Program Foods
Non-program foods are non-reimbursable foods and beverages (also known as “à la carte”) that are purchased and then sold by the SFA’s food service department.
SFA’s must demonstrate that the selling price for “non-program” foods is set high enough to fully cover the cost of the food item. This ensures that the reimbursement funds allocated for the School Nutrition Program do not subsidize the cost of à la carte items.
Charge Policy
All School Food Authorities (SFAs) participating in School Nutrition Programs are required to have a written and clearly communicated Charge Policy that addresses unpaid meal charges, unless the SFA does not charge for student meals or if all schools in an SFA participate in the Community Eligibility Provision.
- If a student has money in hand for today’s meal, they cannot be denied a meal.
- A school may decide whether or not to allow unpaid meal charges, but schools are highly encouraged to provide a meal to a paid or reduced-price student with a negative account balance.