IPSD 204
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School Lunch Program
Free Meals During Remote Learning
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it is extending the distribution of free meals to children through the end of the 2020-21 school year. This allows Organic Life and District 204 to continue serving free meals to all children to help ensure children have access to nutritious food as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Organic Life is offering curbside pick-up of grab and go breakfast and lunch at no cost for all children. Pick-up locations are at each elementary school near door 1, 11 am - 1 pm, Monday through Friday, on days school is in session. No preordering is required.
Menus
Lunch Program Overview
Who to contact
- General Manager - Jill Ghosn - jill_ghosn@ipsd.org
- Administrative Assistant - Judy Burns - 630-428-6535
- Lunch Account Help Desk - Jackie Miller - 630-428-6564
Free and reduced meals
For Free and Reduced Meals, please
download an application below and email to laurie_slate@ipsd.org or fax 331.244.0108:
English Application | Spanish Application
*PLEASE NOTE: Households are responsible for student meals until a letter is received stating your benefits are approved.*
Fee waivers
To apply for a fee waiver, visit the following page:
http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/FeeWaivers
Account refunds
Account refunds can be requested at the following page:
http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Forms/LunchAccountEdit.aspx
Documents and applications
- Free/Reduced Lunch Eligibility Applications:
English Application | Spanish Application - District 204 Wellness Policy
- Collections and Check Processing Information
Meals
Required components of a meal
Under the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 and the National School Lunch Program, the required components of a "meal" to be offered include: fluid milk, grains, meat/meat alternates, fruits, and vegetables. Students are required to take 3 of the 5 components offered and one component must be a full serving of fruit or vegetable.
https://www.isbe.net/Documents/nslp-meal-pattern-flyer.pdf
For the National School Breakfast, the required components of a "meal" to be offered include: fluid milk, grains and/or meat/meat alternatives, and fruits and/or vegetables. Students are required to take at least 3 of the 4 components offered.
What is in a District 204 meal?
The $2.75/elementary or $2.80/secondary meal that is available to all students includes: fluid milk, meat/meat alternate, two different fruits and/or vegetables, and breads/grains.
A second reimbursable meal is 100% chargeable to all free/reduced students. They are only entitled to one free/reduced price reimbursable meal. Single items are considered a la carte and do not qualify as a meal for free/reduced. The student's account will be charged for all a la carte items.
Lunch/Breakfast meal prices (full-pay)
- Elementary: $2.75 per meal*
- Middle: $2.80 per meal*
- High: $2.80 per meal*
(*Students are required to take 3 of the 5 components offered and one component must be a full serving of fruit or vegetable.) - Breakfast: $1.60 (all grades where breakfast is served)
(Students are required to take at least 3 of the 4 components offered, at least one of which must be a full serving of fruit.)
A la carte prices (all students)
- Milk: $.60 -- white (when purchased separately from meals)
$.70 -- flavored (when purchased separately from meals) - Other a la carte items (besides milk): prices vary
Accounts, Payments, and Free & Reduced Meal Info
Student account balances
Electronic balance letters are sent on Tuesday and Thursday each week via email*:
- Low balance email to those with $10.00 or less in account (Tuesdays)
- Low balance email to those with $5.00 or less in account (Thursdays)
- Negative balance email to those with less than -$0.01 in account. (Tuesday and Thursday)
- For families that do not have an email on file with the district, the school office will contact these families as needed
* - emails are only sent to families with an email address in SIS
When a student account goes negative, students may ONLY charge a reimbursable meal (no a la carte items):
- When a student balance reaches the maximum negative amount (equivalent to 5 reimbursable meals), Schools will call the families of the students that have reached the maximum negative amount (equivalent to 5 reimbursable meals) to encourage families to bring the accounts up to date or send a lunch. If during the meal service time, a student who is past the maximum negative amount (equivalent to 5 reimbursable meals) obtains a lunch and is ready to checkout with the cashier, the student will be provided a reimbursable meal ONLY and charged to the students account.
Online meal and fee payments
- Online meal and fee payment info can be found at the following location:
http://www.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/OnlineMealPayments
Free and reduced meals
Under the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program, those eligible for free/reduced mealsreceive either a free meal or reduced meal of $.40/meal. Milk is included with a meal. The District is no longer on the Illinois Free Milk Program, thus any milk without a meal is charged the a la carte milk price**, regardless of their eligibility status. At this time, breakfast is not served at all schools.
In order to qualify, families must submit a Free/Reduced Priced Meals Application. The current application is available at the link below. Families who do not have access to online information can request a paper copy of the application at the school.
Free/Reduced Lunch Eligibility Applications
Federal Income Eligibility Guidelines
- Please visit the USDA website for the current income guidelines (click the link for the current school year): http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/notices/iegs/iegs.htm
Special Diets
Allergies and special dietary needs
Indian Prairie School District #204 and OrganicLife SmartFoodservice takes food allergies very seriously and takes every precaution to keep our cafeterias and kitchens safe for your children.
As such, OrganicLife does not purchase any foods that contain any type of nuts or tree nuts. All of our school kitchens are free of any type of nuts to eliminate the possibility of cross contamination. Not all manufacturers we contract with will state they have nut-free facilities, but they are required to label foods with nutritional information and ingredients. None of the ingredients in the manufacturers' facility lists include any nuts nor say made or processed in a plant that contains nuts.
That being said, as participants in the NSLP, please note we cannot guarantee all products or commodities allocated to District 204 are processed in a peanut/tree nut-free facility. If your child has a severe allergy, please contact the school nurse and/or Foodservice Director for further assistance.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) nondiscrimination regulation (7 CFR 15b), as well as the regulations governing the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, make it clear that substitutions to the regular meal must be made for children who are unable to eat school meals because of their allergy and special dietary needs, when that need is certified by a licensed physician.
Students with allergies or special dietary needs are required to have a signed physician's form filed with the Food Service Director. Each special dietary request must be supported by a statement, which explains the food substitution that is requested. It must be signed by a recognized medical authority.
The medical statement must include:
- an identification of the medical or other special dietary condition which restricts the child's diet;
- the food or foods to be omitted from the child's diet; and
- the food or choice of foods to be substituted.
Click here to download the form. Forms can be submitted to your school office.
School food service staff will work closely with the support people who are familiar with the needs of the child. The child's parents or guardians, teachers, occupational and physical therapists, special education staff, and the school nurse are valuable resources.
Schools may not charge children with disabilities or with certified special dietary needs who require food substitutions or modifications more than they charge other children for program meals or snacks.
Gluten-free diets
Students who follow the gluten-free diet can be provided with a gluten-free meal. In order to provide a gluten-free meal five (5) days advance notice is required so meal counts can be prepared. Gluten-free menus can be found under the menus section of the School Lunch Program website.
Students with gluten allergies or special dietary needs are required to have a signed physician's form filed with the Food Service Director in order to pay the published Lunch/Breakfast Meal prices. Each special dietary request must be supported by a statement, stating that they must be served gluten-free food. It must be signed by a recognized medical authority.
If your family is gluten-free but you don't have an official diagnosis the school district can accommodate the request and provide students with a gluten-free meal. The cost for a gluten-free meal without an official diagnosis is $5.00.
Every attempt will be made to mirror the gluten-free menu to the non-gluten-free menus.