Meals in all Franklin County Schools are available to all students, faculty, and staff. School meals must meet the dietary guidelines for America, with breakfast providing ¼ of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) and lunch providing 1/3 of the RDA. Begun in 1946, the National School Lunch Program has steadily improved through the years, developing increased dietary guidelines and added programs such as breakfast, after school snack programs, and summer feeding.

The Franklin County SNP is very much concerned about providing students with the best possible nutrition at school. Proper nutrition is important for both physical and educational development. Nourishing meals assist children in making the most of their educational opportunities.

Every student has a choice of at least 3 menu choices a day: (1) the menu of the day (2) a PBJ sack lunch (3) chef salads on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a loaded baked potato on Tuesday and Thursday. Multiple kinds of milk are also available. Occasionally a chicken salad plate or a tuna salad plate will be offered at the various schools.

A free or reduced application for meals is available in all cafeterias, school offices, and the Board of Education. Any student eligible for free or reduced price lunch is also eligible for a free or reduced price breakfast. Information on a student’s eligibility for free and reduced priced meals is strictly confidential. Temporary applications are also a possibility if a household experiences a temporary layoff, a strike, zero income, temporary disability, or receives unemployment compensation. Temporary applications may be approved as temporary free or temporary reduced status. All temporary applications will be reviewed every 45 calendar days.

Beginning with the 2005-06 school year, if students in grades Pre-K through the 8th grade must charge a meal, they will only be able to charge a maxium of 5 meals, including breakfasts and lunches, before the charges must be paid. There will be no charges at the high school level.

Beginning with the 2005-06 school year, there is only ONE APPLICATION PER FAMILY/HOUSEHOLD EVEN IF STUDENTS ATTEND DIFFERENT SCHOOLS(except Foster Child). Use a separate application for each foster child. Each student's legal name, grade, school attending, student social security number, and Food Stamp/TANF number (if eligible) is needed for the application to be filled out. An adult household member must sign the application and put the adult's social security number. An incomplete application cannot be approved, so be sure to fill out all required information. Children in household getting Food Stamps or TANF and most foster children can get free meals regardless of income. Children can also get free or reduced priced meals if the household income is within the free or reduced limits on the Federal Income Guidelines. A child does not have to be a U.S. citizen to qualify for free or reduced price the household. All people living in a household, related or not (such as grandparents, other relatives, or friends) must be included along with all other adults and children living in the household when reporting income. Applications will be received at any time during the school year if your household size goes up, income goes down, or if you start getting Food Stamps or TANF. If you lose your job, your children may be able to get free or reduced price meals during the time you are unemployed, so the children will be classified as "temporary free" or "temporary reduced" for 45 days. A reevaluation will take place at that point..

  All student breakfasts cost $1.50, and adult breakfasts cost $1.75.

All elementary lunches cost $2.25, with secondary lunches costing $2.50. Faculty and staff pay $3.00, with visitors paying $3.75. The Holiday Meal (at Thanksgiving and Christmas) costs $4.25 for adult visitors and $3.75 for children visitors.

Franklin County Cafeterias have Offer vs. Serve, which means a breakfast offers 4 items, with everyone having to take any 3 items without paying a la carte pricing. A lunch offers 5 items, with everyone having to take any 3 items without paying a la carte pricing. Students must be offered all five required items for lunch:

1 serving each of Meat/Meat Alternate
Milk
Grains/Bread
2 servings of Vegetables/Fruits

The Food Pyramid Game

In the operation of all feeding programs administered by the U.S. Department of agriculture, no child will be discriminated against because of race, sex, color, national origin, age or handicap. If you believe you or any individual has been discriminated against, write immediately to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250