Frequently Asked Questions

Free or Reduced Price School Meals applications may be completed and submitted electronically through Skyward Family Access.

1. Log in to Skyward Family Access
2. Select the Food Service tab on the left side of the page
3. Click on Applications
4. In the pop-up box, click on Add Application to create a new application
5. Once you have completed all required fields within the application, click Submit Application

Please Note:  An application will include all household members. You do not need to complete separate applications for each student in your household.

You can find out if your child is receiving free or reduced price school meal benefits either by contacting the Food Service Office or by checking their Lunch Type on Family Access.

To find your student's Lunch Type on Family Access:

1. Log in to Skyward Family Access.
2. Click on the Food Service tab on the left side of the screen.
3. Use the arrow button at the top of the screen to select your student's name.
4. The Lunch Type will be listed under the heading Current Account Balance.

A Lunch Type of NORMAL means that the student is NOT currently receiving free or reduced price school meal benefits.

Once your Free or Reduced Price School Meals application is processed, either an email or letter will be sent to you regarding the outcome of your application. In order to ensure that you receive the notification, please verify that your email address and physical address are current in Skyward. You may need to check the spam folder on your email account in case your notification gets flagged as spam. If you do not receive a notification within two weeks of submitting your application, you may contact our office to inquire about its status.

Every effort is made to process Free or Reduced Price School Meals applications upon receipt in the Food Service Office. If, however, the application is not filled out completely, we will need to contact you for the missing information, which may increase the processing time. All charges accumulated prior to an application's approval are the responsibility of the parent/guardian.

No, they are not.

If your Free or Reduced Price School Meals application is approved, the benefits are effective the day of the approval. Any food service charges accumulated prior to the approval date are the responsibility of the parent/guardian. For this reason, it is important to submit your application as early as possible, make sure that no information is missing, and include a phone number or email address on the form.

Visit our Meal Charge Policy page for more information.

The Food Service Department does not share free or reduced price school meals information, or anything relating to financial eligibility, without the consent of the parent/guardian.

Everyone on our staff who has access to free or reduced price meals information is required to sign a confidentiality agreement upon being hired and at the start of every academic year.

Our point-of-purchase software is carefully configured to eliminate any reference to a student's eligibility status in order to prevent anyone other than Food Service cashiers from obtaining eligibility information.

All students, regardless of their eligibility, are offered the same meal choices as the rest of the students at their school. The food options offered to students do not serve as an indicator of their eligibility status.

The District does not receive additional funding or any other benefits based on the number of applications submitted. Therefore, if you are positive that your student will not qualify for free or reduced price school meals, it is not necessary to submit an application.

However, if you are unsure whether or not your student will qualify, we encourage you to submit a Free or Reduced Price School Meal application. There is no penalty for filing an application that ends up being denied, and we would like to make sure that anyone who is eligible for benefits receives them.

Upon enrollment, each student is randomly assigned a five-digit food service PIN which will stay with them until they graduate or withdraw from the district.

Students are asked to enter their PIN at the point of purchase (the end of the service line) every time they have a school meal or purchase an à la carte item. In addition to ensuring that charges are applied correctly, using a PIN helps students get through the service line faster, allowing them more time to enjoy their meal.

Cashiers do have the capability to look up a student's account by name, but because cashiers do not always know the name of each student, looking up accounts by name slows the line down considerably.

Helping your student to learn their food service PIN will benefit not only them, but also the rest of the students in the service line.

Food service PINs can be found on Skyward Family Access.

1. Log in to Skyward Family Access.
2. Select the Food Service tab on the left side of the page.
3. If you have more than one student in the district, select the student whose PIN you'd like to see.
4. The five-digit PIN is located on the right side of the page (Key Pad Number).

There are three ways to add money to your student's food service account. Select one of the tabs below to see instructions for each method.

The auto-replenish feature may be enabled or disabled using Skyward Family Access.

Yes, you can.

If you would like your child's semester milk payment to be deducted from their food service account, please contact the Food Service Office. The balance in the account must be sufficient to cover the semester milk payment. Requests from a parent/guardian whose child's account balance is below the total amount of the fee will not be processed. The Food Service Office will inform you if your request is unable to be processed.

Because this is a voluntary program, semester milk fees will only be deducted from the student's food service account if a request is made to our office. Semester milk fees are never deducted without authorization.

Please visit our Semester Milk Program page for more details regarding the Wisconsin School Day Milk Program.

Our kitchens will accommodate documented food allergies. Without documentation from a physician, our staff will be unable to alter the menu for your student.

Documentation may be submitted to your school's main office. The school nurse will ensure that our staff are notified of the food allergy and receive a copy of the document for their records.

Students are always welcome to go back through the service line for additional servings of fruits and/or vegetables. We only ask that they not bring their dirty tray back through the line. If necessary, we will provide a small cup or boat for the fruit or vegetable.

At the elementary level, we do not allow second helpings of the main entrée for two reasons: (1) we try to avoid excess waste by only making enough entrées for the students who signed up for a meal that day, and (2) the USDA's nutritional guidelines are stricter for elementary students than secondary students. We also do not allow second helpings of treats such as Goldfish crackers, cookies and freezies.

At the secondary level, students are welcome to take a "double entrée" when they go through the service line, or to come back for a second entrée after finishing the first. However, the additional entrée is considered an à la carte item and will be charged as such. The current cost of an additional entrée is $2.50.

That depends.

When a student takes a carton of milk without it being part of a reimbursable meal, it is considered an à la carte purchase, and a charge applies. This is true even if your student qualifies for Free or Reduced Price School Meals. À la carte purchases are only allowed if there are sufficient funds in the student's food service account to cover the cost of the purchase, or if the student presents sufficient cash to the cashier at the point of purchase. The cost of a carton of milk for the 2024/2025 academic year is 35¢.

We understand that some students may be tempted to get a little carried away with their à la carte spending, much to their parents' frustration.

We can offer some assistance in this matter by adding what we call a "wanding message" to the student's account. A wanding message is a pop-up notification that appears on the cashier's screen after the student enters their PIN, informing the cashier that a parent or guardian would like to limit, or even eliminate, their student's à la carte purchases.

Although our cashiers are well-trained and very observant, the service lines move quickly. Occasionally (but very rarely) a cashier may not notice the wanding message before the student walks away. We cannot guarantee that your student will never exceed the limit you have requested. However, if you notice that the limit is being repeatedly exceeded, please notify our office so that we can look into it.

To request a wanding message for your student's account, contact the Food Service Office.

If you are unable to log in to Skyward Family Access because you have forgotten your user name or password, contact the main office of your student's school. The school secretary has the capability to look up your user name and reset your password. The Food Service Office is unable to assist you with problems regarding your log in.

When your student graduates and is no longer enrolled in the District, any funds left in their food service account will remain there until we are notified by the parent or guardian as to what is to be done with them. Please contact the Food Service Office to inform us what you would like done with your student's remaining food service account balance. The options are listed below.

Before you contact our office, please make sure that the auto-replenish feature is disabled in Family Access. Instructions on how to disable the auto-replenish feature can be found on our FAQ page.

Transfer the Funds to Another Student

Donate the Funds to the Money for Meals Program

Receive a Refund

You may request that the funds remaining in your student's food service account be refunded to you. Depending on how your most recent payment was made, either a refund check will be mailed to you or your credit/debit card will be refunded. Refunds are processed by the Business Office; they determine the method for refunding the account balance. When requesting a refund, we will need to know your current address in case a check is to be issued. Refunds can take up to two weeks to be processed. If you have not received your refund within that time, please call our office at 715-345-5435.