FAQs

School meals are healthy meals. Our meals are planned to encourage children to choose a variety of foods to meet the Recommended Daily Dietary Allowances for school age students. Entrees, side dishes of fruits, salads, vegetables and milk choices are offered to help students best meet their recommended nutrient levels especially for vitamins A, C, calcium, protein and iron.

Research shows that children who eat school lunch meals consume:

• Twice as much fruit
• Seven times the amount of vegetables
• Fewer calories from fat
• Greater amounts of grain

School lunch meals also provide:

• More of the eight major vitamins, as well as a higher intake of calcium, iron, zinc, protein and fiber
• Milk was the choice of 87% of the students who purchased lunch
• Age appropriate serving sizes - no super-sizing
• A greater variety of healthy food selections

Lunches brought from home:

• Have three times as many snack items
• 9% of the lunches are the prepackaged type with cheese, crackers and meat "Lunchables"
• Parents are in a "time crunch" when packing lunches and give kids what they want
• Often home lunches do not include fruits or vegetables
• Only 7% of the students who brought lunch from home consumed milk
• Lunches were higher in fat and sodium and provided less nutrients

The goal of the food services department is to provide enjoyable, wholesome, high quality, nutritious meals, served in an efficient, friendly manner at an affordable price.

Our food is purchased from the same quality suppliers and manufacturers that top quality restaurants use. Many of the foods served are also the same food you see everyday at the grocery store.

Good eating habits and physical activity are essential to the health of our children and families. Parents and family members remain the greatest influence on a child's eating habits. The behaviors children see most often at home are the ones they will most likely adopt for themselves. Parents and adults need to be good role models.

The school nutrition personnel are an important ally in helping students select healthful meal choices. However, if a student were to purchase lunch everyday during the entire school year it would only be 15% of their total meal consumption annually.

We do offer elementary students a "Great Grab & Go Fun Bag Lunch" with a variety of food options, when students are away from school during lunch. The cost of the special lunch is the same as our regular lunch. For your convenience students can use their debit card or pay in cash. For more information contact your student's teacher or food service @ 248.341.5881.

Special lunches for field trips will be available in the near future for middle and high school students.

Here are some pointers to remember when introducing new foods:

• Keep a relaxed attitude.
• Never insist that a child try a new food. Do not punish a child who refuses.
• Serve a new food several times so the children can become familiar with it.
• Start small. Serve a small portion of the new food.
• Serve a new food with a familiar food. Remember the balance between familiarity and variety.
• Eat the new food with them. Children will often eat foods they see familiar adults eating.
• Rather than ask if the children like a new food, ask them to describe how it tastes. Does it taste Salty? Sweet? Sour?

• Grains are good sources of complex carbohydrates, which are derived from plants.
• Grains contain B vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and other B vitamins.
• Grains provide much needed fiber in the diets of both children and adults.

The funds remain in your child's account and will be available for the first day of school. A negative balance will also remain on account and will be required to be paid. For those students transferring from one school to another within the district, the money will be available in the new school.

• Negative accounts: will receive a phone message to send payments
• "0" Balance accounts: will receive NO phone messages
• $4.99 or less accounts: will receive a courtesy reminder phone call to add funds.
• $5.00 or more accounts: will receive NO phone messages

Please let your school office secretary know of any phone number changes as soon as possible.

Yes, go to Parent Connect and log in with your PIN and Password and then go to the "cafeteria" link.

In 1946 President Truman signed the NSL Act to establish a federally assisted meal program for students. There were two goals for this program:

• To safe guard the health and well-being of the nation's children
• To encourage the consumption of our agricultural commodities

Today 28.4 million lunches are served daily.