GENERAL SCHOOL BREAKFAST AND LUNCH PROGRAM INFORMATION

DVUSD Food & Nutrition participates in the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program. We are committed to offering nutritious meals at affordable prices. In a typical year, our cafeterias serving PK-8 offer three to five different entrée options daily, one of which is always vegetarian.  School lunches include five meal components daily (fruit, vegetable, grain, protein, and milk). To build a meal, students need to choose at least three of the five components, one of which needs to be a fruit or vegetable.  Students are encouraged to take all five.

Federal nutrition standards require school meals to meet specific standards, including:

• A wide variety of fruits and vegetables
• Whole grain rich foods (99% of our grains are 50% or more whole grain)
• Fat-free or 1% milk
• Foods low in sodium, fat, and saturated fat                                                                       

BUYING SNACKS IN THE CAFETERIA

In addition to daily meal options, school cafeterias also have a variety of snacks and beverages available for purchase. All snack items sold in the cafeteria meet Federal nutrition guidelines, called Smart Snack Standards. These standards are similar to those of the school meal programs. You can learn more about the standards on the Food & Nutrition website under the Smart Snacks tab.

Note: Parents can contact their student’s cafeteria manager any time to place restrictions on a student’s ability to purchase snacks. Restrictions can be made in several different ways, including setting daily spending limits, allowing snacks on certain days only, or totally blocking all snack sales.   

POLICY ON UNPAID MEAL CHARGES

The Food & Nutrition Department understands that sometimes a student’s meal account will run low or go into the negative. To ensure that all students are being treated equally, as well as to ensure that we are fiscally responsible with our limited resources, we want to make our meal charge policy known to all parents.

Grades Pre-K Thru 8

It is the policy of the Deer Valley Unified School District to provide a complete meal to all students. In the event a student’s account has insufficient funds to pay for the meal, the account is charged. Parents/guardians shall be contacted for payment through phone calls and written notification.

• À la carte purchases are not permitted when the account is in a negative balance.
• For more information, please read our 2023-2024 K-8 Parent Letter

Grades 9 - 12

Should a student in grades 9 – 12 have insufficient funds to pay for a meal, up to one negative meal charge is allowed.  Once a student has reached the limit of one meal charge, they will be provided with an alternative meal, for which the student’s account will be charged.

• À la carte purchases are not permitted when the account is in a negative balance.
• Negative meal charges will not be allowed during the last ten days of the school year.
• For more information, please read our Parent Information Flyer

All Grade Levels

When a negative account balance exceeds the dollar amount equivalent to ten lunches:

• The Principal, Counselor and/or designated staff member of the Food & Nutrition Department will contact the student's parent(s)/guardian(s) to determine an appropriate resolution of the circumstance.
• The student's parent(s)/guardian(s) will be provided application materials for the free and reduced-price meal programs.

Meal debt follows all students from year to year, and school to school, until the balance is paid.  

If it is determined the district is unsuccessful in collecting payment, the debt may be sent to a collection agency.

It is the parent’s responsibility to monitor the student’s account balance. At any time, parents can set up a low balance reminders and view spending at no cost, using EZSchoolPay.com.  EZSchoolPay is a secure, convenient and friendly way to manage and pay for your child’s school meals via the Internet.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.