MyNutrikids.com is HERE!!!!
Thanks to some terrific parents' perserverance, we are finally able to offer
all of you the convenience of beingable to veiw and add money to your
children's lunch accounts online!
I am currently working with this website to add the icon on the homepage so
that you can just click on it and it will take you directly to the
MyNutrikids.com site, but I haven't figured it out yet! So you can either go
to the links page and click on the icon there or simply type
www.MyNutrikids.com into your browser and it will take you there too.
I am so happy to say that over 100 people have used the site to add money to
there children's accounts just within the first few days!
I have added the parent letter that I sent home that talks about using
MyNutrikids onto the downloads page.
Any feedback you might have is always appreciated so don't hesitate to call
or email me!
A L--O--N--G WORD on Policy and Procedure:
With our computerized POS (point of sale) system, Gone are the days when you
had to scrape up cash every day to pay for your kids lunch. Now you can pay
for as many lunches or as few as you want to up front just by writing a
check! Some parents write a check for $5.00 and some have written checks
for $500.00! It's nice to not have to worry about it all the time! I know,
I'm speaking as a parent too! Recently though, I have had a couple of
parents
who have had some difficulty understanding how the system is designed to
work. I figure that for every parent who comes forward with a concern there
are probably a couple more out there who haven't so, I think it's worth it
for me to go over the policies and the reasons for them, just to clarify.
(You can find a basic decription of the service on the information/allergy
sheet located in the downloadable forms section of this website).
You may give your child a check or cash. OR NOW you can add money through the
web using pay pal or a major credit card on the www.MyNutrikids.com site. If
you are sending cash or check, they give the money to their teacher (if in
elementary school)or directly to the cashier (in grades 5-12).
Every student enrolled in Poland Schools automatically has an account number
whether they use the system or not. The check or cash is credited to the
student's account and every time the student gets a lunch or buys anything
the money is debited from their account, unless they are just paying cash,
which they are still allowed to do of course!
In the elementary level (K-4) The students are given a memo on THURSDAYS
ONLY if their lunch account balance has fallen below $6.00, to remind you to
send money in for their account. This means that if they have anything less
than $6.00 they WILL get a memo to bring home. If they have $6.00 or more
they WILL NOT get a memo. We set this cut off point at $6.00 so that you
have time to react and send in money before they run out. We don't set it at
$10 or $20 because 1. it would be ineffective, and 2. we would have to print
and distribute memos to 75% of the students every week and that is
prohibitive for too many reasons!
Keep in mind that we will not let a child go without lunch even if they do
run out of money, but you as their parent are responsible to pay any charges
they might incur. ALSO and this is VERY IMPORTANT: WE DO NOT ALLOW
CHARGING OF EXTRAS OR SNACKS AT ALL- EVER! THE ONLY THING WE ALLOW TO BE
CHARGED IS ONE (1) LUNCH each day(We do this because we feel that every
student needs to eat lunch every day, not because we are required to. It is
a courtesy that we extend to you, as such, we reserve the right to rescind
this courtesy if it is taken advantage of). EVEN IF YOU SEND IN MONEY FOR
YOUR CHILD TO BUY EXTRAS OR SNACKS--IF THEY HAVE A NEGATIVE BALANCE IT MUST
BE PAID BEFORE THEY CAN BUY EXTRAS OR SNACKS.
Please, I encourage you to call me if you have any questions at all about
this policy. This is a policy that the federal government sets forth, and
we are required to enforce it! I want your children to be able to buy
whatever they want, whenever they want it! It is to this departments benefit
to encourage your child to buy! But, we must obey the laws too. So please
pay
attention to when you last sent money in for your childs account and pay
attention to the memos we send home to keep you informed! Ultimately it is
your responsibility to make sure your child has money in his or her account
if you want them to be able to buy extras or snacks. We provide the weekly
memos as a courtesy to you. I hope this has helped you to understand what
we
do and why we do it!
Check back to this announcements page periodically for updates and special
announcements!
Check out the forms section for lots of useful info, such as downloadable
free and reduced forms, recipe lists, price lists, allergy alert/dollar
limit for extras forms, and any other pertinent stuff I might add.
The links tab features great interactive games, weight loss tools and cool
web pages geared toward ages 4 through 90!
NOTE: If any of the links on this site are broken you would be doing me a
BIG
favor by emailing me about it so I can fix them. Thanks!
A Word...or so...on VALUE:
I would like to address a question of value: Our lunch prices are right in
line and even a little bit lower when compared to other Mahoning Valley
schools. one of the reasons that we participate in the National School
Lunch Program is that we are able to bring value as well as quality to the
table when our students take advantage of the "Type A" Lunch that we offer
as a meal each day:
A Type "A" Lunch consists of:
1 Bread or Grain (IE: Hamburg bun, 2 slices bread, rice, pasta...you get the
picture)
2 oz. Meat or Cheese or alternate(Meat, Cheese, Nut Butters (which we do not
serve), yogurt...etc.)
3/4 cup of any combination of 2 fruit or vegetable (Fries...which I object
to using as a vegetable, but the USDA does not....such is the power of the
potato lobbyists), beans, salad, greens, Mashed Potatoes (Also should not be
counted as a vegetable but as a bread....but who am I to complain?),
Carrots,Celery, peaches, apples, pears, pineapple, watermelon...now you're
catchin on!)
8 oz Milk (I only buy 1% milk and it is available in white, chocolate and
strawberry).
Now you know what makes up a school lunch. When a student takes at least
three of these items (the 3/4 cup fruit/vegetable counts as two items) in
combination, we are able to "claim" that lunch for additional reimbursement
(currently only .23) from the Federal Government. We also receive .18 in
USDA food credit for every Type "A" lunch we serve.
This little bit of money helps us to operate efficiently and also assures
you that we are being constantly monitered to provide nutritious meals that
meet the US Guidelines for Americans.
Why am I going on and on about this? Because many of our students do not
take advantage of the lunch and they buy everything Ala Carte or, in
English, by itself. This costs you more and provides less balance. I
would like to encourage you all to encourage the students to buy their
Lunches as a "meal" rather than ala carte. This will help your pocketbook,
their nutrition, and our programs success!
Thanks, and please feel free to call 330-757-7000, Ext. 1038 or email me at:
DCartwright@PolandSchools.org with any questions or suggestions!
Donna Cartwright
