Help Families in Need Cover Meal Costs 2020

Please contribute what you can to help cover the unpaid bills for school meals for families in need. Your contribution is tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

The majority of Intermediate District 287 students qualify for free and reduced school meals. Yet even families who qualify for free meals may end up with unpaid balances in their foodservice accounts because among other reasons:

• The forms may not be submitted until the school year has already started. Before the forms are submitted and eligibility has been determined, USDA requires school districts to charge families for meals consumed, resulting in a debt for these needy families; and
• Some families, particularly those in which the parents and/or the student are undocumented, are afraid to provide the requested information to the government.

Our Procedure: How will we apply fundraised or donated funds to student meal balances?  

School districts are required to have a fair and equitable practice for applying fundraised and donated funds to unpaid student meal account balances.   This process needs to be publicly available and accessible to families.

Donated Funds: Funds donated to address student meal debt will be applied in the following order:

1. If legally possible, per provisions given by the donor.
2. If no provisions given by donor or funds remain after donor provision is met:

• First to meal debt in student accounts that became eligible for free school meals after the beginning of the school year. If there are insufficient funds to cover all meal debt for students eligible for free meals at the end of each semester then funds will be prorated to each student’s account.
• If there are funds remaining after #2, funds will next be applied to student accounts eligible for reduced school meals. If there are insufficient funds to cover all meal debt for students eligible for reduced meals at the end of each semester then funds will be prorated to each student’s account.
• If any balance remains after all meal debt in student accounts eligible for both free and reduced meals have been covered, then donated funds will be allocated to:  1) Pay off meal debt of families who have requested help due to financial crisis. 2) Work with school social workers and administrators to identify families with significant needs and pay off meal debt.  Preference will be given to families who have applied for free/reduced price meals, but were denied. 3)If funds remain after all items in 1 through 4 are covered, funds will be carried over to the following school year and will be used in the order of items 1 and 2 above.