St. Mary’s County Public Schools
Department of Food and Nutrition Services
Standard Operating Procedure
Purpose: The school nutrition program provides nutritious meals to children during the school day. In order to serve healthy, high-quality meals to all students, we must make sure we are financially secure. To prevent students from going without a meal, charges may be made to the meal account. As parents/guardians, SMCPS wants to ensure that you are notified when your child’s cafeteria account is low or in the negative. All are expected to pay.
Procedure:
1. Elementary and Secondary Schools:
a. Charges are only allowed for reimbursable meals or milk purchases, never a la carte items.
b. Students may purchase a meal with “cash in hand” regardless of the amount of money owed.
c. Students currently approved for FREE meals receive a meal regardless of the amount of money owed.
d. Weekly automated phone calls and emails are sent to notify households of students whose meal account balance has become low (less than $5.00 remaining).
2. Adult Meal Accounts: No charges are allowed to adult meal accounts
3. School Administrative Accounts: Café Enterprise accounts may be established for use by a school’s administration. The maximum charge on these accounts is $500.00. The cafeteria manager provides the school administrative office with a monthly invoice for the amount owed.
4. Parents may utilize the MySchoolBucks online payment system to replenish students’ meal account funds. There is no charge for using MySchoolBucks and low balance notifications via email or automated payments using a checking account or credit card are available. Even if MySchoolBucks is not utilized for online payments, parents may access MySchoolBucks to monitor their child’s meal account activity.
5. Parents or guardians with questions about their child’s (children’s) meal accounts can contact the school cafeteria manager or the FNS central office.
6. If desired, a parent/guardian may request that a dietary note be placed on their child’s account to restrict purchases or charges.
FoodServicesShared/Policiesand Procedures/MealChargesSOP New:02/10/2009; Revised 7/22/2015. 7/25/2022 11/28/2022
