Nutritious meals impact the health and success of our students and are essential for strong academic performance. The goal of Chartwells Dining Services, our schools' food service provider, is to enhance student performance by providing nutritious meals and promoting the importance of healthy eating.

Our nutrition standards are based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid, and our menus are developed with ingredients that promote health and wellness.

Breakfast Prices
Elementary $1, Secondary $1.25, Reduced meal $.30, Adult $2

Some Duval County public schools participate in a free breakfast program known as Breakfast in the Classroom. Each morning, the kitchen staff delivers breakfast to the classrooms. Students eat at their desks in the company of friends and classmates.

This program does not require the family to submit a Free/Reduced Meal application in order to receive free breakfast. Visit our website for a full list of the schools that participate in the Breakfast in the Classroom program.

Lunch Prices
Elementary $1.60, Secondary $2, Reduced meal $.40, Adult $3

Do You Qualify for Free Meals?
Families can qualify for free or reduced priced meals depending on household income and family size. Please complete the Free and Reduced Price Meal Application form to see if your family qualifies. Applications can be downloaded from our website, picked up from the front office of your child's school or can be mailed to you. Completed applications can be faxed to 904-732-5157 or sent to DCPS’ Food Service Dept., 2924 Knight's Lane East, Jacksonville, FL 32216.

An application packet is mailed to every family who had a student enrolled in Duval County Public Schools last year to the address listed in Genesis. Individual applications will be placed in the front office of each school.  Applications are also available on line at https://free-reduced-lunch.duvalschools.org/lfserver/eform.  Completed applications can be faxed to the Food Service Department @ (904) 732-5157, mailed to #3275C, Building 6, Attn:  Free and Reduced Meal Application Dept, or returned to the Cafeteria Manager.

Only applications for the 2010-11 school year can be processed; please discard any applications from a previous year that may be in your school.  Students who had a meal eligibility status of either Free or Reduced in the prior year may eat using that status for up to 30 operating days beginning from the first day of school.  This year that date is October 4.  However, if another application is submitted prior to October 4 and it is processed and approved with a different status, the new status will become effective the day after the application has been processed.

All applications will be processed upon receipt in the Free and Reduced Meal Application Department.  Incomplete applications will be processed as denied pending additional information. When the missing information is received, the application will be reprocessed.  Letters are sent to each household after the application has been processed stating the determination of the eligibility status, either Free, Reduced, or Denied. 

For additional information, call the Food Service Department at 904-732-5145.

NO LUNCH MONEY POLICY 

DATE:           July 26, 2010

In recent years, the District instituted a policy that allowed Pre-K to Grade 5 students to run a maximum negative balance of $1.50 if they did not have money to purchase lunch.  In addition to that policy, DCPS will supplement this by allowing students in those grades who do not have lunch money to receive lunch the first five (5) days of school Specifically, 

• Students in grades PreK-5 who forget to bring their lunch money will be allowed to run a negative balance of 1.50 for lunch, plus up to 5 free lunches during the first week of school.

• If a student reaches the maximum negative balance amount of -$1.50 after the first week, the student will receive a non-reimbursable “substitute meal” of a cheese sandwich and a juice for lunch; the student will receive this “substitute meal” until the balance in their account has been cleared.  
• Students will not be allowed to charge breakfast.
• Each day at the end of lunch the Cafeteria Manager will run a ‘Negative Balance Report’ to be filed daily. The manager will then run a negative balance letter from WinSnap which will be put in the teachers’ boxes for distribution to the students, to be sent home to the parents.
• At the end of each month letters will be mailed out to the parents of all students with a balance of $1.50 to collect the negative balance.  This letter will be sent out from the school office (preferred) or the DCPS food service office if the school prefers not to mail.
• All students in middle and high school must follow traditional guidelines and either prepay or provide payment at point of sale if they are a Paid or Reduced status.
• Any cashiers / manager found not adhering to this policy will be subject to appropriate corrective action up to and including termination

MyLunch.com

MyLunchMoney.com. allows parents to log on and prepay for meals using a credit card.  There is a  fee of $1.95 per transaction.  Recurring payments may be set so that when the account balance is low the account is automatically replenished using the existing credit card information.  An account may be established by calling MyLunchMoney.com at 1-800-479-3531, Option 5, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST.  Please be aware if using this option that it may take up to 72 hours for the payment to post to your child’s account. 

For more information, please click on the following link:

http://www.duvalschools.org/static/students/lunch/index.asp