Food Services

This Year in Food Service

During the 2023-24 school year, Schoharie CSD will be participating in the Community Eligibility Provision program, which provides no-cost meals to all students.

CEP is a federal provision that allows high-poverty schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. This option increases school meal participation by removing stigma, maximizes federal reimbursements, reduces administrative paperwork, and eliminates unpaid school meal debt. CEP schools continue to operate both the School Breakfast and National School Lunch programs, and must uphold nutrition standards and meal quality, but processes and procedures for counting and claiming reimbursable meals are simplified. CEP is available to any school, group of schools or district that have 40 percent or more students directly certified for free school meals, by means other than a school meal application.

School districts that participate in the CEP program:

• Must provide both breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost.
• Do not track meals by fee category (i.e. free, reduced-price, paid). They simply count the total number of meals served.
• Do not collect payment/fees from students.
• Do not collect and verify school meal applications.

While the reduction in paperwork related to traditional free and reduced lunch forms is a clear benefit, New York State still requires CEP schools to collect alternative forms –  also referred to as CEP Household Income Eligibility Form – for other purposes, such as state education funding and Foundation Aid. Also, individual families may be eligible for certain benefits based on the data collected through these forms.

This form is available below:

CEP Household Income Form

CEP Parent Letter

Monthly Menus

Menus are updated monthly and are available at LINQ Connect. Lunch items are subject to change. Print versions are available below:

Jr./Sr. High School Breakfast Menu, September

Elementary Breakfast Menu, September

Jr. /Sr. High School Lunch Menu, September

Elementary Lunch Menu, September

LINQ Connect

The District has discontinued the MySchoolBucks pay system and has launched a new system on a platform called LINQ Connect (last year it changed it’s name from Titan.  There are three easy steps to starting your family LINQ Connect account.

1. Register
   Create an account at https://linqconnect.com and
   selecting Register.
2. Verify your Account
   Verify your account by clicking on the email verification
   link sent to your email address.
3. Sign In
   Now you can sign in at https://linqconnect.com using your
   email and password.

For commonly asked questions and answers, please see our LINQ Connect FAQ Sheet.

Checks can be made payable to Schoharie Central School District School Lunch Fund. For elementary students please remember to put payments in an envelope labeled with the child’s full name (and names of any siblings that are to receive account payments) and teacher’s name.

If you experience any issues with the registration process, please contact Erin Wright, Shared Food Service Program Specialist at Capital Region BOCES at 518-464-3945 or by email at erin.wright@neric.org.

Think Breakfast!

The New York State Education Department’s New York State Child Nutrition Program offers a fun, information-filled website about breakfast and more. Visit Think Breakfast! on the web.

Healthy catering for Elementary classrooms

Schoharie’s Food Services department and our Elementary cafeteria offer a catering service to provide healthy snacks for in-classroom birthdays, holiday parties, snack time or any time. Simply download and complete the form below and return it with payment by the morning of the day of your child’s classroom event to the Elementary cafeteria. Forms are also available at the cafeteria.

Catering Order Form

SNAP Information

For information about the end of Emergency SNAP benefits in 2023 and other resources, please contact the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance here. 

 USDA Summer Meals program

The USDA offers free summer meals for children age 18 and younger at locations throughout the country. To learn more, visit https://www.fns.usda.gov/summerfoodrocks

You may be eligible for free summer meals!

Free Summer Meals

 FREE summer meals near you!
See the following information to quickly and easily find summer meal locations near you.
Text: “food” or “comida” to 877-877
Call: 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 211

https://www.fns.usda.gov/meals4kids

www.summermealsny.org

How Are Lunches Planned?

Schoharie Central School District plans meals according to nutrition, portion and serving guidelines that have been set by New York State and the federal government to ensure children are offered meals that provide the nutrition they need and to encourage healthy eating habits. The guidelines were established as part of the U.S. Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

Schoharie works with suppliers to find foods that both meet the guidelines and are appealing to students. Food services staff also develop ideas to make eating healthy fun for students, such as a make your own pizza and veggie burritos, while meeting the guidelines.

Meal Pricing

• Adult breakfast: $2.57
• Adult lunch: $5.02

Federally Required Daily Calorie Counts

The federal government had set the following minimum and maximum number of calories per day for students:

• K-6: 550-650 calories per day
• Grades 7-8: 600-700 calories per day
• Grades 9-12: 750-850 calories per day

Snacks

As with meals, federal and state guidelines govern the ingredients, portion sizes and calorie counts for any snacks that are made available for sale to students during school hours.

Prohibition Against Meal Shaming

The goal of the Schoharie Central School is to provide student access to nutritious no- or low-cost meals each school day and to ensure that a pupil whose parent/guardian has unpaid school meal fees is not shamed or treated differently than a pupil whose parent/guardian does not have unpaid meal fees.

• Complete Prohibition Against Meal Shaming Policy
• District Wellness Policy

Affordable Connectivity Program