School Lunch Information
Updated 07/22/09
Nutritious meals are essential to the growth and development of our children. Well- balanced lunches are available to your child on a daily basis in the school cafeteria. Penn Manor School District participates in the National School Lunch Program, which means that we must meet certain nutritional criteria when we serve your child lunch. Each lunch we serve offers your child: Protein, Fruits, Vegetables, Bread, and Milk. The lunch prices for the 2009-2010 school year as follows: Elementary-$2.00, Secondary-$2.15/$3.00/$3.25/$3.75, Reduced lunches-$.40, and Adult lunches-$3.40/$4.00.
Offer vs. Serve: We encourage you to discuss menu selections at home with your child. Help them to learn to make wise nutritious menu selections. Your child may refuse 1 or 2 menu items as they proceed through the lunch line and still meet the requirements of the school lunch program.
Meal tickets (Pre-paid breakfasts/lunches): As a service to parents and to help students avoid lost or forgotten lunch money, lunches can be purchased in advance by either check or cash. Checks should be made payable to: "Penn Manor Food Service." We will remind your child when his/her lunch ticket is getting low. Please indicate on the check your child’s name and grade. The cost for a full price meal ticket is $50.00 for elementary and secondary. The reduced price meal ticket is $10.00. Beginning this school year, pre-paid monies can also be used to purchase ala carte food items.
My Nutrikids: Beginning this school year, there will be no need to make separate payments (either check or credit card) for breakfast and lunch. All prepaid monies will be available for student purchases of breakfast, lunch, and ala carte. Also, parents will have the ability to print out a copy of their child's eating history report. This history report will show you all dates and times that your child has made food purchases within the past thirty days. This service can only be utilized if the parent registers their student on the website MyNutrikids.com. These new services will be available August 1, 2009. To access these services simply go to the district website at www.pennmanor.net. Click on the Lunch link. Click on the MyNutrikids.com link. From this site, you will create your account and add money to your child's school meal account. All you need is your child's name, student ID number and school zip code.
Free and Reduced Price Lunches: Penn Manor School District has received the Federal Income Eligibility Guidelines for free and reduced price meals for qualified students and their families. These guidelines and an application for free and reduced price meals will be hand-carried home with your child on the first day of school. We will be using a multiple children application this year. Families with more than one child should list all children on the same application. We request that the application be returned to the school as soon as possible if you feel you qualify for these benefits.
Menu: Each month your child will bring home a copy of the new monthly menu. In addition to the regular daily entree, your child can choose the alternate hot or cold sandwich (B lunch), a peanut butter and jelly sandwich(C lunch), or yogurt and string cheese (D lunch), offered daily. In addition, ala carte items such as ice cream, water, and baked snack items is offered on a daily basis for $.60 each.
History
The history of school lunch began when President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act on June 4, 1946. Though school foodservice began long before 1946, the Act authorized the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The legislation came in response to claims that many American men had been rejected for World War II for military service because of diet-related health problems. The federally assisted meal program was established as a “measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities.” While the school lunch program has been in existence for nearly 60 years and has been seen significant changes over this period, the original premise of the legislation had remained largely unchanged. The National School Lunch Act has since been amended number times. Public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions may participate in the NSLP.
On October 11, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. The Act established the School Breakfast Program (SBP). The SBP is a federally assisted meal program that provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free breakfasts to children and public and nonprofit schools. President Johnson remarked during the signing of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, “good nutrition is essential to good learning.”
“Type A” Lunch
All “Type A” (reimbursable) school lunches must follow a meal pattern established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The school lunch must offer the following-
1 cup fluid milk
¾ cup juice, fruit, and/or vegetable
1 serving grains/bread
1 meat/meat alternate serving
This meal pattern has remained essentially for the past 60 years. Calories and saturated/unsaturated fats are monitored in school lunches, but newer trends in less protein and counting carbohydrates are not addressed in the school lunch program.
“Type D” Lunch
Starting with the school year 2005-2006 a D lunch alternative was introduced in the elementary schools. The D lunch consists of a 4 ounce yogurt and 1 ounce string cheese entrée in an effort to offer students with a lower fat, lower calorie alternative. This new alternate allows the student to substitute the yogurt and string cheese for the A entrée while still receiving the same fruits, vegetables, and milk. Healthy food choices are part of the cafeterias initiative to battle childhood obesity concerns.
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