Meal Prices & Pre-Payment Options

Welcome back to a new school year!  We are looking forward to seeing students once again in our buildings, and in our cafeterias. ACPS offers healthy meals every school day. This year, breakfast costs $2.10 for all grade levels (grades PK-12) while lunch will cost $3.15 for Elementary (grades PK-5) schools, and $3.35 for Secondary (grades 6-12) schools. Your child(ren) may qualify for free or reduced-price meals if your household income falls within the limits on the Federal Income Chart or if your student attends a CEP school. 

There is a 30-day grace period for completing FARM application forms for students who qualified for FARM in SY 23-24 or attended a CEP school SY 23-24. The cutoff date for SY 24- 25 is as follows:

Schools	Grace Period Cut-Offs
Samuel Tucker	September 4
Traditional ES (PK-5)	October 1
Traditional MS/HS (6-12)	October 1

À LA CARTE

A limited number of à la carte items are available in all schools. To view our à la carte menu, please click here. Please note that not all items may be available due to manufacturer availability. Additionally, item availability may vary by school.
 

Student Account Balances and Restrictions

Per school board policy, students will never be denied a reimbursable meal for breakfast or lunch regardless of their account balance. However, students will not be permitted to charge a second meal or a la carte/snack items to their accounts if they have a negative balance. To purchase extra snacks and/or beverages, students must have funds in their lunch account. If adding funds via SchoolCafe, please allow 24 hours for funds to reflect on the student's account. 

All families are strongly encouraged to check the balance of their students’ meal accounts online at www.schoolcafe.com. Our food service staff is not permitted to provide courtesy reminders directly to students regarding low or negative balances. All communication regarding student meal accounts must occur directly with parents/guardians.

Through our meal payment system – www.schoolcafe.com – families have the ability to sign up to receive low balance alerts via email and/or text message. We strongly encourage families to sign up for these no-cost alerts.

Student Restrictions
School Nutrition Services does not restrict the amount of a la carte items a student can purchase. Guardians/ parents are able to control student purchases via the add restrictions feature within their student(s) School Cafe' account(s).

SchoolCafe Purchase Restrictions (PDF)link

Pre-Payment Options

Please take advantage of the options to prepay your student's meal accounts. Prepaid meal accounts help the serving lines go faster and give students more time to eat, relax, and play. It also gives you the peace of mind of not having to worry about the child's money every day or worry that it might get lost, stolen, or used for other things.

Online Payments

ACPS offers parents the opportunity to create and add money to their student’s meal account via SchoolCafé for any additional purchases using Visa, Mastercard, or a debit card. A small per-transaction convenience fee of $1.75 will be charged for each payment. You can also monitor your student’s meal account, set up reminders. School Cafe is the preferred method for paying for meals.

This online service allows parents of students to do the following:

• Prepay money directly into their child’s account
• Monitor their child’s food purchases
• Set purchase restrictions
• Set up low-balance email reminders
• Schedule recurring payments
• Have 24/7 Access to accounts & balances
• Submit a free-reduced meal application
• The maximum amount parents can deposit per student is $100 per transaction
• Transfer funds/Request refund

If at any time you leave the district or would like to request a refund on your account, you may do so by going to the SNS web page and selecting the “refund” tab under the meals and prepayment tab or directly through School Café.

Important Notice: Student PIN Security

It is important to maintain student integrity concerning the usage of PIN numbers when purchasing meals within ACPS schools. Any alleged unauthorized purchase or usage of PIN Numbers not assigned to a student is subject to investigation and could potentially lead to disciplinary action. Students and parents/guardians are encouraged to safeguard student PIN numbers by not sharing it with others. Please contact The Office of School Nutrition Services to report inaccurate charges and suspicious account activity

Log In/Sign Up
Manage your student's SchoolCafé account

See how to set up an account and make a payment.

Send Check or Cash

You can always bring money personally or send it with your student. Please place it in an envelope marked clearly with your student's name, their ID number, their teacher's name, the dollar amount, and the check number. Turn in prepaid deposits to the cafeteria cashier(s) or school office.

If you choose to bring money to school personally or send it with your student, please put it in an envelope clearly marked with the student's first and last name, their ID number, their teacher's name, and the amount enclosed.