Application Process Rosemead School District Nutrition Services Department MEAL COUNTING & COLLECTION PROCEDURES 1. Household meal applications are available online and in print. Online meal applications are available on www.schoolcafe.com and print applications are available for pick up at all school site offices and cafeterias, as well as the Nutrition Services (NS) Department office. 2. Returning students are mailed a registration packet each year, and a weeklong registration event is offered before school starts to accept applications and provide technical assistance to families applying online. 3. Applications are accepted year-round. 4. Within ten (10) working days of receiving the current school year meal application, a written Notification Letter for Approval/Denial is mailed to the household. 5. Students eligible for direct certification are determined using the longitudinal data system, CALPADS. Direct certification reports are collected from CALPADS at least three times annually; (1) at or around the beginning of the school year; (2) three months after the initial effort; and (3) six months after the initial effort. Within ten (10) working days of receiving notification of a newly direct certified household, a written Eligibility Notification of Direct Certification is mailed to the household. Benefits Issuance 1. The student database is maintained using an USDA-approved Point of Sale (POS) software program. When a meal application is processed, the student s record is changed to reflect the meal eligibility status. 2. Meal eligibility applications from the prior school year are valid until an eligibility determination has been made for the current school year or up to the first 30 operating days of a new school year. The Account/Clerk will ensure that on the 31 st operating day of the new school year, if no new application is processed, that the eligibility will change to paid status. 3. The student ID number is the unique meal number assigned to each student. 4. After the student selects a reimbursable meal, the student will enter his/her meal number on the 10-key pad and the POS software will pull up the student account and record the meal based on the student s eligibility status. 5. The POS database is updated with the names of new students as soon as the school site creates a new PowerSchool student account. Students who have exited the Rosemead School District (RSD) are listed as inactive. The database listing active students is consistently monitored to reflect an accurate accounting of free, reduced-price, and paid students. The Account/Clerk is responsible to notify the cafeteria manager of any new student, new eligibility determination, and/or change in eligibility status. Updated 7/31/17 Page 1
6. All information concerning each student s meal eligibility is considered confidential and is only shared with approved designated staff members that will be using the information for application processing, meal service, and/or for statistical recording by the school district. Meal Payment 1. To encourage increased participation of students qualified for reduced-price meals, the RSD Board of Education authorized the NS Department to eliminate the co-payment for breakfast and lunch. Therefore the cost of the reduced-price meals served is absorbed by the NS Department. 2. Payments are accepted online and at the school site. Online payments have a 5% service charge and can be made at www.schoolcafe.com. Cash or check payments on the account can be made at the school cafeteria before school or at any time during the day at the school office or the NS Department office. 3. Parents can also create a free online account on www.schoolcafe.com to check their balances and also view transactions. 4. The POS software deducts the cost of the meal from the prepaid account and computes a new balance on the account. Only one reimbursable breakfast and one reimbursable lunch can be deducted from each student s account per school day. Additional purchases are classified as a la carte sales or seconds, which are charged at the paid rate and not claimed as reimbursable meals. 5. Each time a student s meal account number is entered into the POS software, the account balance will show on the terminal screen. When a student s account is getting low ($5.00 or less) the Manager or Asst. Manager will give a low/zero balance note to the front office to send home with the child to notify the household that the student s account balance is low. If payment is not received, and the student continues to come for school breakfast and/or lunch meals, the Manager is to notify the school front office staff and/or the NS Department office to contact the household directly via phone and/or in writing. 6. Once a student account has a $0.00 balance, the student is allowed to charge up to three lunch meals on their account. If payment is not received and three regular lunch meals have been charged on their account, the student will then receive an alternate lunch. Alternate lunch meals consist of a cold cheese sandwich, choice of fruit and/or cold vegetable, and milk. Alternate meals are charged to the student account ($2.00 at elementary & $2.25 at Muscatel). 7. Students classified as paid status either need to bring a lunch from home or pay for their lunch. When parents refuse to comply with the above, the matter is brought to the attention of the school principal for intervention. 8. During the last two weeks of school, students (grades 2-8) will no longer be able to charge on their meal accounts. Students in Kindergarten and 1 st grade will be allowed to charge, but a note will be sent home immediately and a call to the household will be completed by either the school office or the NS Department office. During the last two weeks of school, any student (grades 2-8) with a balance due will receive the alternate lunch until they have paid the balance due. Updated 7/31/17 Page 2
Point of Service 1. The cashier is located at the end of the serving line at all school sites except Emma W. Shuey Elementary School. For sites with POS cashiers, the cashier is responsible for checking that the meal is reimbursable and then records the meal served via the POS software. For Shuey School, there is a designated NS employee who stands at the end of the line to ensure that the correct components are selected before the student is allowed to leave the meal service line. 2. The NS Department follows the Food Based Menu Planning guidelines and has implemented Offer vs. Serve (OVS). 3. All NS employees receive annual training on meal counting and claiming. Servers understand portion control to ensure appropriate serving sizes and cashiers understand how to identify a reimbursable meal following the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 nutrition guidelines. a. For breakfast, students are offered three (3) required food components (fruits, grains, and fluid milk) with a minimum of 3 food items. A meat/meat alternate can be offered to meet part of the grains component if the daily grains requirement (1 oz eq) is offered in the menu. When only 3 food items are offered, the students must take all 3 items (no OVS allowed). When four (4) or more food items are offered, OVS allows the students to decline 1 food item, but the student must select at least ½ cup fruit or vegetable or a combination of both. b. For lunch, students are offered the required five (5) food components (milk, fruits, vegetables, grains and meats/meat alternates). Students are required to take at least 3 of the 5 required food components, and the student must select at least ½ cup of either a fruit or vegetable or a combination of both. 4. If the student does not have a complete meal, the cashier or other NS employee explains to the student what items make a complete meal and asks the student to select the additional item(s) needed to make a complete meal. If the student refuses to select the additional item(s), then the meal is not recorded as a reimbursable meal. 5. When a complete meal has been selected, the student s meal number is entered into the POS system which records the meal served under the current eligibility status. Only one breakfast meal and one lunch meal per student per day will be recorded. If a la carte or a second meal is selected, it will not be recorded in the reimbursable meal count. a. At Shuey, the student s meal number is entered in at the beginning of meal service; however, a trained NS employee is stationed at the end of the line to ensure that all meals selected are reimbursable before the student is allowed to leave the meal service line. 6. Salad bar offerings: a. Each site offers a daily salad bar in the serving line. b. When salad bars are situated after the POS terminals, students will be required to have selected a reimbursable meal at the POS, including the Updated 7/31/17 Page 3
minimum of ½ cup fruit or vegetable (or combination of both). Any additional items selected from the salad bar will be considered as extras. c. Salad bars will be monitored and maintained by NS employees. NS employees are responsible to ensure that students select at least ½ cup of fruit or vegetable (or combination of both) as one of the three required meal components for a reimbursable meal. Portion scoops are utilized on the salad bar, when appropriate, to help ensure that at least ½ cup fruit or vegetable is selected. d. The NS Director will conduct intermittent surveys to estimate the number of students using the salad bar in concurrence with salad bar food product usage. The Director will then be able to estimate the quantity and serving size to be entered in the daily menu for purpose of nutrient analysis. 7. There is no cash required to receive a reduced-price meal. The POS software is programmed to record reduced-price meals without collecting a co-payment from the student. 8. The student s meal number can only be used one time per meal service. If a student is suspected of using another student s meal number this is brought to the attention of the principal. Also, a letter is sent home to the parents of both parties; the student whose meal number was used and the student who used the other student s meal number to obtain a meal or a la carte items. 9. If a student drops their meal, they are given another meal. The replacement meal is not counted for reimbursement but is counted on the production record for internal tracking purposes. 10. If the computer system goes down, the cashier is to record the student meal numbers manually and enter them in the system when it is running again. If the system is down for more than one day then printed class rosters are to be used to record meals. A roster with a daily grid format will be issued if the computer system will be down for a number of days. 11. If the student roster is used then meal totals will be computed manually. 12. The student eligibility roster for each school is printed on the first day of every month, which each cafeteria manager receives for their school. Only the cafeteria manager or assistant manager is able to check the student s eligibility status. Student Field Trips 1. A teacher or staff member may request sack lunches for a field trip with advance notice (two weeks preferred). All requests must be in writing using the Field Trip Meal Request Form. 2. All student field trip meals are served meals that include all five meal components (there is no Offer versus Serve option for these meals). 3. On the day of the field trip, the teacher or staff will bring the student roster and receive written instructions on how to recognize and record when a reimbursable meal is served to students during the field trip. 4. Food quality, safety and spoilage precautions will be taken when preparing and packing the field trip lunches. Field trip lunches will be packed in insulated Updated 7/31/17 Page 4
containers with ice or ice blankets. The teacher(s) and all staff/volunteers attending the field trip must agree to observe the following procedures: a. Store sack lunches in insulated containers with the cover secured until meal service and keep the insulated containers away from direct sunlight. b. Serve lunch to students as soon as possible to prevent prolonged storage. c. Do not serve food items that have been left out of insulated containers for more than two hours. d. Discard leftover food in appropriate trash receptacle. 5. When menu planning for occasional field trips, the food service staff does not have to pack the same vegetable offering that is served at the school that day. The menu planner has the option to offer a different vegetable, or a different vegetable from the same subgroup. However, the food service staff must offer the vegetable subgroup that was served at school while the students were away on a field trip to ensure that all students have the opportunity to select all vegetable subgroups throughout the week. For example, if beans were served as the vegetable choice (beans/peas/legumes subgroup) at lunch on Monday, but the 2 nd grade class had a field trip and was only offered baby carrots (red/orange subgroup) and celery (additional subgroup) for the field trip meal, then beans should also be offered again on another day during the same week to allow the 2 nd grade class the opportunity to select from all vegetable subgroups. Preschool Meals 1. Breakfast: a. Shuey Elementary School is the only school that offers an all-day preschool class, which comes through the normal breakfast serving line for breakfast service and follows the normal meal service procedures. b. A production record is used each day and NS employees document the number of servings prepared. c. The designated NS employee determines if a complete breakfast meal has been selected by the preschool student. Once a complete meal has been selected, the NS employee documents the total number of preschool students that were served on the production record. This information is used to bill the Child Development Department for these meals. The Child Development Department submits their own claim for reimbursement. No preschool meals are claimed by the NS Department. 2. Lunch: a. All elementary schools have a preschool class on-site. NS employees provide all 5 meal components for each student in an insulated transport cart. Hot foods are kept in the kitchen heated cabinets and cold foods are kept in the kitchen refrigeration units until just before transportation to ensure proper temperature control over all foods served. b. A transportation log is provided each day, and NS employees document the number of servings and the temperature at time of food preparation on that log. Updated 7/31/17 Page 5
c. The preschool staff collects the loaded cart and transportation log from the kitchen and transports them to the preschool classroom for meal service. a. All preschool staff are trained annually on food safety and the meal requirements to ensure that all students served receive a safe and complete meal. The preschool staff documents the food temperatures at time of service, as well as the number of students who receive a complete lunch. d. After meal service, the transportation cart and log are returned to the kitchen. The transportation log information is used to bill Child Development for providing the meals. Child Development submits their own claim for reimbursement. No preschool meals are claimed by the NS Department. Special Education Meals 1. Depending on the severity of the student s disability and Individual Education Plan (IEP), each special education student may or may not be able to go through the lunch service line. a. If a student is able to go through the meal service line, they follow the same procedures and select a meal. Once the cashier determines that a reimbursable lunch has been selected, the student s meal number is entered into the POS. b. If a student is unable to go through the lunch service line, a special education teacher will pick up all meal components of a planned reimbursable meal for each student who will be eating a school meal in their classroom. The special education teacher will bring a list or other tracking system, such as laminated tags, which identifies the student meal numbers of all students who are present and who will be eating the meal in the classroom. After the teacher delivers the meals to the students in the classroom, the teacher will then call the kitchen to confirm which students received a reimbursable meal. At that point, the cashier will enter in the student meal numbers into the POS. c. All special education teachers and aides are trained annually on food safety and the meal requirements to ensure that all students served receive a safe and complete meal. Adult Meals 1. Adult meals are charged at a higher paid rate than the student meals to cover the sales tax. 2. NS employees are the only adults who receive free meals during their shift. All food and beverages must be consumed on-site. No food is allowed to be taken home. 3. Adult meal prices are as follows: breakfast $1.50, lunch $3.00, and lunch with salad bar $4.00. Updated 7/31/17 Page 6
After School Program 1. After School Education & Safety (ASES) programs are offered at all five school sites. Starting in the 2017-2018 school year, all schools will start offering Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) supper meals at all sites instead of afterschool snacks. 2. The NS Director creates the monthly menu and makes sure it is in compliance with the CACFP guidelines. 3. All food and beverages are left in the cold food speed line cabinet or a standing refrigerator prior to the food service staff leaving for the day. A production sheet is completed and left with the food. It is the ASES lead instructor s responsibility to take only the number of meals to accommodate that day s attendance. The instructor enters the amount of supper meals taken each day and initials the production sheet attesting to the attendance count. 4. In addition to the production record, a daily tally sheet and consolidated monthly meal count and attendance sheet is given to the ASES Lead to complete on a daily basis. 5. The NS Acct/Clerk utilizes the daily production record, daily tally sheet, and consolidated monthly meal count/attendance sheet to bill the Child Development Department for the number of supper meals served at each site. Child Development submits the CNIPS reimbursement claim. NS does not submit a reimbursement claim for any supper meals. Migrant Education 1. The NS Department provides breakfast and lunch meals for the Migrant Education program at Savannah Elementary School. 2. A NS employees is paid by the Migrant Education program to heat and serve the meals to the students. A production record is completed to document the number of meals prepared and served. 3. The NS employee responsible for meal service completes the following: a. Monitors and records food temperatures on the production record; b. Uses a student roster to mark off meals at the POS; and c. Completes all fields on the production record which is used to document the total of meals served. 4. The Migrant Education office must submit the attendance roster used to check off meals as they are taken by each student. 5. NS Account/Clerk adds the Migrant Education breakfast and lunch counts to the monthly CNIPS reimbursement claim. Updated 7/31/17 Page 7