• Below are important updates for this school year:

    1.       The PPS Nutrition Services website has been updated www.pps.net/nutrition with new menus, new meal prices and updated meal benefits related information.

    2.       Parents can use SchoolCafe to deposit funds to purchase school meals, view transactions and balance, setup low balance alerts, transfer funds from one student to another, etc. Parents need to create a SchoolCafe account to use the system. There is no cost to use SchoolCafe features, except when a debit/credit card is used to fund a student’s meal account. The minimum payment is $15 and there is a 5% fee per online transaction. Cash and check (made payable to Portland Public Schools) payments can be submitted directly to the cafeteria.

    3.       Parents can submit Free and Reduced Meal applications online via SchoolCafe at www.schoolcafe.com or paper.

    o   NEW! Families can download the SchoolCafe mobile app on any Android or iOS device and submit a meal application as well as use all of the other features listed above.

    4.       Free and Reduced paper meal applications have been printed and will be ponied to schools* to hand out to families. There will not be enough to distribute to all families via registration packets. Instead, you can print out the attached flyer as an alternative.
    IMPORTANT: The new applications have ‘2018-19’ on them. Translated applications are located on the Nutrition Services website. Please recycle old applications as they cannot be accepted.

     

    *Meal applications will not be sent to CEP schools where breakfast and lunch are served at no charge. Families do not need to fill out a meal application unless they have a student that transfers to a non-CEP school or has a student in the household that attends a non-CEP school that may qualify for meal benefits.

     

    DID YOU KNOW…

    ·         Families approved for Free or Reduced meal benefits last school year have a 30 day grace period at the start of the school year to apply for meal benefits without incurring meal charges. The grace period expiration date is 10/8/18. If no approved meal application on file, meal charges would begin on 10/9/18.

    ·         Approved free and reduced meal benefits begin the date the meal application is approved and expire at the end of the school year.

    ·         Families who do not qualify for meal benefits can apply anytime during the school year if circumstances change that allow them to meet the federal income guidelines.

     

    ·         Student meal account balances, positive and negative rollover each school year.

    ·         SNAP recipients approved for meal benefits can have meal benefits extended to other students in the household.

    ·         Incoming Kindergarteners and new students to PPS can receive the 30 day grace period if their household qualified for meal benefits last year. Please let us know about these student by contacting the PPS Meal Benefits Office at 503.916.3402 or email mealbenefits@pps.net.

     

    WHAT IS THE IMPACT TO YOU

    Please review the information in this email and let us know if you have any questions.

     

    WHO TO CONTACT WITH MEAL BENEFITS QUESTIONS

    Please contact the PPS Meal Benefits Office via phone: 503.916.3402 or email: mealbenefits@pps.net.