We look forward to the coming school year at the Beresford School District as Lunchtime Solutions continues to provide the food service program in our schools. The purpose of this communication is to provide you with some idea of what to expect from the school food service program. If you have any questions or comments about our program, please feel free to contact Kerry Steele, Area Manager, at (712) 389-0145, (605) 422-3810 or kerry@lunchtimesolutions.com. For your information, our breakfast and lunch menus are posted monthly on our website and bi-monthly in our newsletters.
Breakfast will be served in the dining area, before school starts, at the Elementary School and at the Middle School/High School. Please encourage your student to participate in school breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day because proper nutrition in the morning allows young minds to concentrate on the important task of learning. Research studies show that eating breakfast can help students perform better in the classroom. Breakfast prices will be:
Paid | Reduced | Free | |
K-5 Breakfast | $1.45 | $.30 | $.00 |
6-12 Breakfast | $1.45 | $.30 | $.00 |
Extra Milk | $.45 | $.45 | $.45 |
Extra Breakfast Entrée | $1.00 | $1.00 | $1.00 |
Extra Breakfast Cereal | $.85 | $.85 | $.85 |
School Lunch -
School lunch will offer a wide variety of choices. All students are offered entrée choices daily, such as Home-style Chicken & Noodles, Italian foods, Mexican foods, Chicken Nuggets, entrée salads, wraps, and sub sandwiches. All meals include an entrée choice plus unlimited Fruit & Veggie bar and milk choices. Shown below are lunch prices for the 2012-2013 school year:
Paid | Reduced | Free | |
K-5 Lunch | $2.40 | $.40 | $.00 |
6-12 Lunch | $2.50 | $.40 | $.00 |
Extra Milk | $.45 | $.45 | $.45 |
Extra Lunch Entrée | $1.55 | $1.55 | $1.55 |
Specialty Pizza (MS/HS Only) | $1.75 | $1.75 | $1.75 |
Extra Food -
All students can have extra servings of canned fruit, fresh fruit, and vegetables from the Fruit & Vegetable Bar during lunch at no charge. All extra servings of these items are free.
School Lunch Account -
A computerized system for purchasing meals is used in our school food service program. Each student will have an account that will be utilized to deposit funds for meals, extra milk, etc. Depositing funds will keep lost and stolen money to a minimum, and can be used for breakfast, lunch, extra entrées, milk, etc. If you send cash with your child, please place it in a sealed envelope with their name on it. We are not responsible for lost, unidentified, or stolen cash.
Deposits should be turned in to the school office before school starts. Because we receive an overwhelming amount of deposits the morning of the first day of school, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to input all deposits into accounts before the lunch period begins. To insure that your deposit is credited to your student’s meal account on the first day of school, please complete and return the “Start of School Year Payment Form” along with your cash or check, before the first day of school. These may be turned in to any school office.
The program will allow the purchase of one breakfast and one lunch per day at the meal price set for Paid, Reduced, or Free qualifying status. If a student purchases an extra entrée, ala carte item, or milk they will be charged at the per item price regardless of eligibility.
Diet Modifications -
Families are responsible for notifying the School Food Service if their child requires a diet modification to be addressed and monitored by the School Food Service. A licensed physician must provide specific written medical documentation. Please contact the School Food Service office at the high school for more information.
Join Us! -
Please feel free to join your child for lunch on any day. The cost for an adult meal is $3.20. We hope to see you there!
Food Service Advisory Council -
To provide feedback to us on how the food service program is working and to advise us on what changes could be made to make it work better, we have established a Food Service Advisory Council composed of students, faculty, and parents. If you are interested in serving on the Council or have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact a Council member or call:
Kerry Steele,
Food Service Director, at (605) 422-3810
or (712) 389-0145
kerry@lunchtimesolutions.com.
The USDA, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), published the final ruling for Nutrition Standards for the National School Lunch Program last February. Your school meal program is well ahead of the curve and is already in compliance with most all of the newly released meal pattern requirements for lunch, but there will be some changes as we begin the 2012-13 School Year.
· Your menus already offer fruit daily, in a quantity and variety that greatly exceeds even the new requirements.
· Your program already offers all of the required vegetable subgroups weekly.
· Your program already offers only fat-free (unflavored or flavored) and low-fat (unflavored) milk.
· Menus are already below the saturated fat limit of < 10 % of total calories.
· Menus are already zero trans-fat per portion.
· Many grains currently offered are whole grain-rich and 100% whole grain. The new requirements specify that “½ of grains offered must be whole grain-rich”. Menus have been adjusted to offer grains that are whole grain-rich, such as dinner rolls, buns, and pastas.
· Menus and portion sizes will now be organized into 3 different grade groups. In the past, they were based on grades K-3, and 4-12. The new USDA requirement realigns the grade groups into K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Portion sizes are determined by USDA regulation and must be adhered to.
· The new USDA regulations establish maximum bread servings per week for all grade levels, and no longer allow unlimited bread servings. Therefore, bread and butter can no longer be offered as part of the Fruit & Veggie Bar. Students may still have unlimited servings of fruits and vegetables and are encouraged to do so.
· Entrée choices will sometimes have an item served with them to meet the new grain requirements, and that item may not be served with other entrée choices.
· All lunches must now include a fruit or vegetable (1/2 cup minimum must be on the tray), so cashiers will be monitoring trays and assisting students to ensure this is included.
· Breakfast will be incorporating more whole grain-rich menu items to prepare for changes in SY 13-14.
The USDA’s new meal requirements have been years in the making, and are a response to the concern that our nation’s youth has increasing rates of childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The adjustments are an effort to steer student diets to fewer portions of meats and grains, and more portions of fruits and vegetables. With the program that Lunchtime Solutions provides for your school, if students are still hungry, they will continue to have unlimited servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.
You may choose to send comments on the New Meal Requirements directly to the USDA:
Cynthia Long
Child Nutrition Programs
USDA Food and Nutrition Service
3101 Park Center Drive Room 640
Alexandria, Virginia 22302
703-305-2590
