To ensure that all students have access to healthy school meals and to be good financial stewards, Edison Local Schools institutes a charge policy for the Elementary, Middle and High schools. This policy has as its guiding principle the belief that every student deserves a nutritious breakfast and lunch, but that ultimately it is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to provide for one unless the family qualifies for free/reduced program. To that end, our charge policy is as follows:
Students at all grade levels will be allowed to charge full, reimbursable meals to their student meal accounts. Students shall not be denied access to a full school meal at any time regardless of the amount owed on the student account.
The Edison Food Service department has created a donation account titled the Charger Café Kindness Account. The account is funded by community and staff donations and is to be used at the end of the school year to aid in paying off accumulated student debt. If the Kindness account cannot cover all of the accumulated student debt, the remaining debt will be covered by the school district’s general fund account as per federal regulations.
To aid in the awareness of account levels, students at the Middle and High school levels are reminded verbally by cashiers when their accounts are becoming low or have reached a negative amount. For parent awareness in all of the school buildings there are several means of contact: student reminder notes are sent home weekly in backpacks, emails are sent twice a week to those parent emails the school has on file, and letters are mailed home weekly to the home address the school has on file. (please note the dates on the notice, as you may have addressed the negative account before the letters arrived) When those means of contact do not result in resolving the accounts, the Food Service Director will make personal phone calls home to the phone number the school has on file.
With any amount of a negative balance on the account, students will be prohibited from purchasing ala carte items, even with cash in hand, until the account moves into a positive status. The only charges allowable on a student lunch account will be limited to a complete school breakfast or lunch.
A free or reduced meal can only be claimed when the correct components of a reimbursable meal are chosen by the student. All other items that do not constitute a reimbursable meal are charged at ala carte pricing.
The Food Service Director and the department’s staff members shall take full responsibility for instituting and complying with the charge policy