Our schools lo$e if we don't follow cafeteria rules

All San Francisco school cafeterias are required to follow all regulations set by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).

All adults, and student helpers too, are required to follow the rules. (This means teachers, staff, administrators, parents and other volunteers, not just cafeteria workers.)

The NSLP reimburses our school district for meals for low-income students. If an NSLP audit spots violations, the district won’t get the reimbursements. That can cost our district millions of dollars. That money would come from the school district budget — penalizing our students, teachers, classrooms and schools

Spot audits are conducted periodically.

These are some of the federal rules that must be followed in our cafeterias.

— Students of all ages must have lunch cards and must hold the cards themselves. Adults may not hold them. This includes kindergarten!
— Students must be offered at least five food items at lunch, must select at least three items and must do it themselves. Adults may not put items on the trays.
— Trays cannot be pre-filled with meal items and handed to students or placed on tables for them. This includes kindergarten!
— Students must carry their own trays through the line. Adults may not carry them.
— Cafeterias must offer two types of milk.
— No stickers or other marks may be placed on lunch cards to identify low-income students.
— The required “And Justice for All” posters and Wellness Policy must be posted on cafeteria walls.

These regulations are set by the federal government. For more information, go to www.sfusdfood.org. Thank you for your cooperation in helping our school meal program function in accordance with regulations, and without risking fines that jeopardize our children’s educational resources.

S.F. Examiner on MealpayPlus

MealpayPlus makes the news:

San Francisco Examiner March 6, 2010

Swipe your card, get a meal

Schoolchildren in The City are getting their own form of a debit card to purchase cafeteria food, and the new system will allow parents to track what their kids are eating and should help the cash-strapped school district gain more funding from the federal government for its food needs.

...Parents can prepay for meals on a weekly, monthly or one-time basis using their bank routing number, credit card or debit card, and they can enter payments into an online account that can track a pupil’s history of purchases, along with the type of meals they ordered, said Nancy Waymack, the district’s director of policy and operations.

“If for some reason their child didn’t eat lunch that day, [parents] will know it,” she said.

Among its benefits, the cashless system helps to speed up food lines — which will hopefully lure more students into eating at school cafeterias — and saves on administrative costs, Waymack said.

Read the rest of the article.


(Note: the photo was not taken in a San Francisco school cafeteria.)

Does my school have MealpayPlus yet?

MealpayPlus, the new online cafeteria prepayment system, is being rolled out in more SFUSD schools week by week, and will be online in every school by the end of the spring semester. Families with children at multiple schools will be notified as this system is rolled out to each site.

Here are SFUSD schools that are online as of March 5, 2010:

All high schools

All middle schools

Bessie Carmichael K-8

Bryant Elementary

Willie L. Brown Jr. Academy

Lawton K-8

Miraloma Elementary

Jose Ortega Elementary

Rosa Parks Elementary

Paul Revere K-8

Tenderloin Community Elementary

West Portal Elementary

Yick Wo Elementary

Alice Fong Yu K-8

Watch for updates as more schools come online!

Questions about MealpayPlus registration? Here's help

Registering for MealpayPlus should be easy, but if you run into a problem, please call the Mealpay Parent Help desk at (877) 237-0946.

It's lunchtime. Do you know where your lunch money is?

Now you will. San Francisco school cafeterias have launched a prepayment program called MealpayPlus that will increase convenience for families and speed up lunch lines. Our school district's Student Nutrition Services department encourages families to prepay for students’ school meals by the month, by the week, or on their own schedule.

MealpayPlus allows families to register at www.mealpayplus.com and prepay by credit card, debit card or electronic check online or by phone. Families may also pay by check or cash at school, or may choose to send checks by mail. MealpayPlus will also allow families, including those who qualify for National School Lunch Program free or reduced-price meals, to view their students’ history of purchases in the cafeterias, so parents can see what their child is eating.

Other benefits of MealpayPlus include eliminating the need for children to carry cash to school, reducing cash losses, and helping the district meet all requirements set by the National School Lunch Program. The technology is now up and running at all SFUSD middle and high schools, and is going online at several elementary schools a week. It will be completed in all San Francisco public schools by the end of the school year. Families will be notified by their children's schools when the program is online at each school.