For Parents
Food Services is a non-profit business. Over 70 food service professionals take pride in serving approximately 5,000 customers daily in 23 schools and special centers. Lunch and breakfast is available at all Public School sites.
The Food Service program, as an extension of the educational program of the schools, is operated under the federally funded National School Lunch Act and Child Nutrition Act. The federal laws regulating the food service programs are administered by the United States Department of Agriculture through the regional office and implemented within Washington State by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The program's objective is to improve the health of students by providing a variety of safe, high quality, nutritious foods that students will enjoy eating at an affordable price.
Menus are planned by a School Foodservice and Nutrition Specialist and reflect the Dietary Guidelines for American recommendations of no more than 30% of total calories from fat and no more than 10% of total calories from saturated fat as calculated over a weeks period of time.
The Offer vs. Serve regulation requires that students be offered five meal components but they need not select All the components for the meal to qualify for state and federal reimbursements.
Elementary: Students may decline one of the five food items offered. Middle and High School: Studenst may decline two of the five food items offered. Students selection of complete, balanced meals are encouraged by food services staff
State law has no provision for school districts to allow meal charges and no meal charges are allowed for middle and high school students. At the elementary level however, we realize that there may be instances when meal account balance notification to parents is delayed. Therefore, a maximum of three charges per student, if necessary, is permissible to facilitate parent notification to bring their student's meal account balance up to date. Payment for any charges incurred must be collected by the school prior to the end of the school year. If three charges are utilized, and the student account balance remains negative, an alternate meal will be offered. The alternate meal will consist of a peanut butter or cheese sandwich, fruit and milk.
Zangle/Food Service, our computerized point of service system, handles meal payments and meal counts. Every student is assigned a personal Identification number (PIN). Money is deposited in student accounts, preferably before the school day begins. Accounts are automatically set up for students who qualify for free meals. These accounts show a "Phantom" balance of $20.00. Students select their meal and enter their PIN at the cashier. Zangle/Food Service allows parents to set a dollar limit on a la carte purchases, note a food allergy, or obtain a print-out of a student account. The print-out shows the day the student ate and what was selected.
Bellingham Schools are arranged in “cooking clusters”. Each cooking school prepares and ships a variety of menu items to their satellite schools.
Bellingham High School
Alderwood Elementary, Birchwood Elementary, Columbia Elementary, Shuksan
Middle School, Options High School, Assumption School
Squalicum
High School
Northern Heights Elementary, Parkview Elementary, Roosevelet Elementary,
Silver Beach Elementary, Sunnyland Elementary
Sehome
High School
Happy Valley Elementary, Lowell Elementary, Larrabee Elementary, Fairhaven
Middle
School, Discovery Center
Kulshan Middle School
Geneva Elementary, Carl Cozier Elementary, Whatcom Middle School, Grads, Homeport
