Cafeteria
Letter to Parents for School Meal Programs
Special Provision Options (Provision 2 Non-Base Year & Community Eligibility Provision)
Dear Parent or Guardian:
We are pleased to inform you that Chateaugay Central School District will be implementing a meal certification option available to schools participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs for 2023-2024.
What does this mean for your child(ren) attending the school(s) identified above?
All students enrolled at Chateaugay Central School are eligible to receive a healthy breakfast and lunch at school at no charge to your household each day of the 2023-2024 school year. No further action is required of you. Your child(ren) will be able to participate in these meal programs without having to pay a fee or submit an application.
If you have any further questions, please contact Mary Legacy at 518-497-6611 ext. 2301.
Sincerely, Loretta Fowler - Superintendent of Schools
ABBEY Cafeteria Staff
Tina Parent
Rose Filion
Shyan Peterson
Dylan Monette
Dezra Prairie
My School Bucks
You can log into your school lunch account by clicking the icon above, or CLICK HERE.
There will be a convenience charged fee per transaction.
Payment methods accepted:
Visa®
Mastercard®
Discover®
Electronic Check
Parents may fund up to $120 per student, but a family may pay for all of their students on a single transaction.
Due to legal requirements, we are unable to transfer automatic e-mail notifications.
Families that qualify to receive SNAP Assistance are “categorically eligible” (automatically eligible) for free school meals and can be certified without submitting an application through the School District. Categorically eligible students include:
Children who live in a household that participates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and in certain instances, Medicaid.
Foster youth, migrant, homeless, or runaway youth, and Head Start participants.
ABBEY Group
Get an APP for your Android phone or iPhone and have instant access to the school menus, nutrition data, and other information about the school cafeteria program. CLICK HERE to learn more
Chateaugay Central School District Meal Charge and Prohibition Against Meal Shaming Policy (click to expand)
1. Purpose
The goal of the Chateaugay Central School District is to provide student access to nutritious noor low-cost meals each school day and to ensure that a pupil whose parent/guardian has unpaid school meal fees is not shamed or treated differently than a pupil whose parent/guardian does not have unpaid meal fees.
Unpaid charges place a large financial burden on our school. The purpose of this policy is to insure compliance with federal requirements for the USDA Child Nutrition Program and, to provide oversight and accountability for the collection of outstanding student meal balances to ensure that the student is not stigmatized, distressed or embarrassed.
The intent of this policy is to establish procedures to address unpaid meal charges throughout the Chateaugay Central School District in a way that does not stigmatize, distress or embarrass students. The provisions of this policy pertain to regular priced reimbursable school breakfast, lunch and snack meals only. The Chateaugay Central School District provides this policy as a courtesy to those students in the event that they forget or lose their money. Charging of items outside of the reimbursable meals (a la carte items, adult meals, etc.) is expressly prohibited.
II. Policy
Free Meal Benefit - Free eligible students will be allowed to receive a free breakfast and lunch meal of their choice each day. A la carte items or other similar items must be paid/prepaid.
Reduced Meal Benefit - Reduced eligible students will be allowed to receive a breakfast of their choice for $.25 and lunch of their choice for $.25 each day. A student will be allowed to charge a maximum of five(5) meals to their account after the balance reaches zero. The charge meals offered to students will be reimbursable meals available to all students, unless the student's parent or guardian has specifically provided written permission to the school to withhold a meal. A la carte items or other similar items must be paid/prepaid.
Full Pay Students - Students will pay for meals at the school's published paid meal rate each day. A student will be allowed to charge a maximum of five (5) meals to their account after the balance reaches zero. The charge meals offered to students will be reimbursable meals available to all students, unless the student's parent or guardian has specifically provided written permission to the school to withhold a meal. A la carte items or other similar items must be paid/prepaid.
ONGOING STAFF TRAINING:
Staff will be trained annually and throughout the year as needed on the procedures for managing meal charges using the NYSED Webinar or the school's training program.
Staff training includes ongoing eligibility certification for free or reduced price meals.
PARENT NOTIFICATION:
Parents/guardians will be notified that a student's account balance is exhausted within 5 days and then every 7 days/week thereafter.
Parents/guardians will be notified that a student has accrued meal charges within 7 days of the charge and then every 7 days/week thereafter.
PARENT OUTREACH:
Staff will communicate with parents/guardians with five or more meal charges to determine eligibility for free or reduced price meals.
School staff will make two documented 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.
School staff will contact the parent/guardian to offer assistance with completion of meal application to determine if there are other issues within the household causing the child to have insufficient funds, offering any other assistance that is appropriate.
MINIMIZING STUDENT DISTRESS:
School will not publicly identify or stigmatize any student on the line or discuss any outstanding meal debt in the presence of any other students.
Students who incur meal charges will not be required to wear a wristband or hand-stamp, or to do chores or work to pay for meals.
Schools will not throw away a meal after it has been served because of the student's inability to pay for the meal or because of previous meal charges.
Schools will not take any action directed at a pupil to collect unpaid school meal fees.
Schools will deal directly with parents/guardians regarding unpaid school meal fees.
ONGOING ELIGIBILITY CERTIFICATION:
School staff will conduct direct certification with NYSSIS or using NYSED Roster Upload at least monthly to maximize free eligibility.
School staff will provide parents/guardians with free and reduced price application and instructions at the beginning of each school year in school enrollment packet.
Schools using electronic meal application will provide an explanation of the process in the school enrollment packet and instructions on how to request a paper application at no cost.
Schools will provide at least two additional free and reduced price applications throughout the school year to families identified as owing meal charges.
Schools will use administrative prerogative judiciously, only after using exhaustive efforts to obtain a completed application from the parent/guardian only with available information on family size and income that falls within approvable guidelines.
Schools will coordinate with the foster, homeless, migrant, runaway coordinators at least monthly to certify eligible students.
Students/Parents/Guardians may pay for meals in advance via mySchoolBucks.com or with a check payable to CCS or Chateaugay Central School District. Further details are available on our web-page at www.chateauagycsd.org. Funds should be maintained in accounts to minimize the possibility that a child may be without meal money on any given day. Any remaining funds for a particular student may/will be carried over to the next school year.
Refunds for withdrawn, and graduating students; a written or e-mailed request for a refund of any money remaining in their account must be submitted. Students who are graduating at the end of the year will be given the option to transfer to a sibling's account with a written request.
Unclaimed Funds must be requested within one school year. Unclaimed funds will then become the property of the Chateaugay Central School Food Service Program.