For those of you who are unaware, I spend my days sporting hairnets, dumpster-diving after lost artifacts, and making your sloppy-joes extra sloppy. I love my job as a lunchlady, but there are a few things I see that get my gourd. Serious topics aren't really my favorite thing to write about, but I don't want to see any children go hungry because their parent or guardian didn't know about the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) application renewal period.
This program may sound foreign to some of you, so I'll start by quoting directly from the Benefits.gov website:
"The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day."
Essentially, if you qualify, your child can get a free (or almost free) lunch when they see me at school. I will encourage them to make healthy selections that will fill their tummies. I want to be able to give them the nutrition they need to get through the day.
If you are already familiar with the NSLP, did you know that your child's application carried over from last school year? If he qualified for free or reduced meal prices last semester, that status automatically carries over for 30 days into the new school year. Of course, you probably already knew that, but did you know that the renewal period is approaching?
For some schools which started obscenely early this year (such as mine), that time has already come. Many of the parents and guardians of our students let their applications lapse - and that's no good for anyone.
Every school has rules about negative account balances and how much a student is allowed to charge (check your school's website for specifics for your situation - every school website I've visited has this information and more). For some schools, a student may be able to charge up to $25. Other schools in my area don't allow a student to charge any amount at all, so if his account has a $0 balance, he's not going to be able to charge even a single lunch, which is why I felt the need to write about this oft'-forgotten application deadline.
Yes, the school will feed him... but it's not going to be the same lunch offered to students still above the school's negative balance threshold. His alternative to going home hungry is the cold cheese sandwich meal you may have seen making headlines around this time of year. I don't want to give your kid a cheese sandwich; I want to give him the same lunch as everyone else. That's why paying attention to the NSLP application deadline is so important.
The application can be found at Benefits.gov, a site so extensive, I recommend searching by state. If you live in Pennsylvania, like me, the application can be found here. Most people these days are not without internet access - and you couldn't be reading this article online right now, otherwise.
It's never too late to apply (in fact, you can do it at any time), but the 30-day grace period is ending soon. If you or someone you know may need to renew your child's application, please don't hesitate to do so. Your kid will thank you for it, and so will I.
