Free and Reduced-Price Meals

Based on family size and income, your family may qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. All information is strictly confidential.

To find more information about whether your family qualifies for this program then download the Free and Reduced Price Meals application online, pick up an application at your child’s school, or contact the RCS Food Service Department at (518) 756-5200, ext. 2437. Only one application needs to be submitted per household. You will be notified within 4-5 business days if you qualify for the program.

If you receive a letter from the school stating your child has been approved through direct certification this means your child will receive free meals, and that you will NOT need to complete this application.

It is imperative that families who are eligible for free or reduced meals fill out the free and reduced meal application for the 2023-2024 school year. Filling out this form will allow families to access many additional services and support networks they otherwise might not be eligible for. It will also give our school district and local municipalities valuable information about needed resources.

An application package is mailed home to all parents in late August within the school calendar. Applications are available online and in any school office. Parents are encouraged to submit the completed application to their child’s school or district office before the start of school each year.

Students remain on the previous meal plan they qualified for thirty school days, October 19, 2023. Students will lose their meal benefits on October 19, 2023, if an application for school year 2023-24 is not filled.

Any questions can be directed to Douglas Porter, Food Service Director at DPorter@RCSCSD.org, or by calling (518) 756-5200, ext. 2437.

Pay for your child’s school meals online

Students/Parents/Guardians may pay for meals in advance via Myschoolbucks.com or with a check payable to RCS School Lunch Fund. Funds should be maintained in accounts to minimize the possibility that a student may be without meal money on any given day. Any remaining funds for a particular student may be carried over to the next school year.

The mySchoolBucks.com program offers a secure online service to pre-pay for meals online using a credit card, debit card, or checking account (PayPal is no longer accepted).

mySchoolBucks.com also allows you the convenience of adding funds to your child’s meal account, scheduling automatic payments, opting to receive an electronic “low funds” reminder message, and viewing a monthly report of your child’s daily spending and purchases.

Click to view short videos on how to add a new student, set up automatic payments, update your payment method, and receive low-balance alerts for your My School Buck account.

To obtain a refund for a withdrawn or graduating student, a written or e-mail request for a refund of any money remaining in the student’s account must be submitted. Students who are graduating at the end of the year will be given the option to transfer any remaining money to a sibling’s account through a written request.

Unclaimed funds must be requested within one school year. Unclaimed funds will then become the property of the District Food Service Program.

Any questions can be directed to Douglas Porter, Food Service Director at DPorter@RCSCSD.org, or by calling (518) 756-5200, ext. 2437.

Dietary and Food Restriction Information

The Ravena Coeymans Selkirk Central School District Food Service Department is committed to keeping students safe and helping families ensure their students make healthy food choices at school. For this reason, we ask families to provide dietary restrictions accompanied by a doctor’s note, to our nurses’ office. From there, our dedicated nursing staff informs our Food Service Department.

We load the information into our point of sale system to alert food service personnel of the restriction for your student. It is a pop-up and is kept confidential by staff.

This pop-up can also be used for alerts such as an account restriction, for example, limit one snack per day. In this case, a phone call can be made to the Food Service Director, Douglas Porter at 518-756-4508 to set this up. A note from a parent or guardian is required to remove the account restriction.

Meal Charge and Prohibition Against Meal Shaming Policy

It is the District’s goal to provide students with access to nutritious no- or low-cost meals each school day and to ensure that a student whose parent/guardian has unpaid meal charges is not shamed or treated differently than a student whose parent/guardian does not have unpaid meal charges.

Unpaid meal charges place a large financial burden on the District. The purpose of this policy is to ensure compliance with federal requirements for the USDA Child Nutrition Program and to provide oversight and accountability for the collection of outstanding student meal balances to ensure that the student is not stigmatized, distressed, or embarrassed.

The intent of this policy is to establish procedures to address unpaid meal charges throughout the District in a way that does not stigmatize, distress, or embarrass students. The provisions of this policy pertain to regular-priced reimbursable school breakfast, lunch, and snack meals only. Charging of items outside of the reimbursable meals (a la carte items, adult meals, etc.) is expressly prohibited.

Minimizing Student Distress

1. Staff will not publicly identify or stigmatize any student in line for a meal or discuss any outstanding meal debt in the presence of any other students.

2. Students with unpaid meal charges will not be required to wear a wristband or handstamp or to do chores or other work to pay for meals.

3. Staff will not throw away a meal after it has been served because of the student’s inability to pay for the meal or because of previous unpaid meal charges.

4. Staff will not take any action directed at a student to collect unpaid meal charges.

5. Staff will deal directly with parents/guardians regarding unpaid meal charges.

Ongoing Staff Training

1. Staff will be trained annually and throughout the year as needed on the procedures for managing meal charges using the State Education Department (SED) Webinar or the District’s training program.

2. Staff training will include ongoing eligibility certification for free or reduced-price meals.

Parent Notification

Parents/guardians will be notified that a student’s meal card or account balance is exhausted and has accrued unpaid meal charges within 5 days of the charge and then every 10 days/weeks thereafter. 

Parent Outreach

1. Staff will communicate with parents/guardians with five or more unpaid meal charges to determine eligibility for free or reduced-price meals.

2. Staff will make two documented attempts to reach out to parents/guardians to complete a meal application in addition to the application and instructions provided in the school enrollment packet.

3. Staff will contact the parent/guardian to offer assistance with the completion of the meal application to determine if there are other issues within the household causing the student to have insufficient funds, offering any other assistance that is appropriate.

Ongoing Eligibility Certification

1. Staff will conduct direct certification through the New York Student Identification System (NYSSIS) or using SED Roster Upload at least monthly to maximize free eligibility.

2. Staff will provide parents/guardians with free and reduced-price applications and instructions at the beginning of each school year in the school enrollment packet.

3. If the District uses an electronic meal application, it will provide an explanation of the process in the school enrollment packet and instructions on how to request a paper application at no cost.

4. The District will provide at least two additional free and reduced-price applications throughout the school year to families identified as owing meal charges.

5. The District will use its administrative prerogative to complete an application on a student’s behalf judiciously, and only after using exhaustive efforts to obtain a completed application from the student’s parent/guardian. The District will complete the application using only available information on family size and income that falls within approvable guidelines.

6. The District will coordinate with the foster, homeless, migrant, and runaway coordinators at least monthly to certify eligible students.

Nondiscrimination Statement: In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877- 8339.

To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ad-3027.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632- 9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant's name; address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

1. mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250 -9410; or

2. fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or

3. email: program.intake@usda.gov

This is an equal opportunity provider.