At lunch, all students may select an entrée, 1 cup of vegetables, 1 cup of fruit, and a milk as their meal. Students should select a minimum of 3 items and one of those must be a fruit or vegetable.

At breakfast, students may select an entree with 1 milk and 1 fruit, and 1 juice. A fruit or fruit juice must be selected.

The interim USDA rule entitled, “National School Lunch Program: School Food Service Account Revenue Amendments Related to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010” published in the Federal Register on June 17, 2011(76 Federal Register 35301), requires school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program to ensure sufficient funds are provided to the nonprofit school food service account for meals served to students not eligible for free or reduced price meals. The rule, and the statutory provision is based on, Section 12(p) of the Richard B Russell National School Lunch Act, 42 USC 1760(p) states SFAs must annually review their paid lunch revenue to assure compliance with the paid lunch equity requirement. When the average paid lunch price is less than the difference between the free and paid Federal reimbursement rates, the SFA must gradually increase their average prices charged for paid lunches.

The Lincoln County Child Nutrition Department accepts prepayments on student accounts in several different ways.

• You may send cash in an envelope to school with your child. Make sure that you have clearly marked the envelope with the student's name, account number (PIN), homeroom teacher and the amount that is enclosed in the envelope.
• You may send payments to school in the form of a check. Make sure that all checks are clearly marked with the student's name and account number (PIN).
• We also accept payments via the internet. This can be done by accessing our third-party vendor's web address of http://www.k12paymentcenter.com More information regarding this service can be found under the prepay menu on the left.
• If you are pre-paying for more than one student and you are not using the on-line payment method, please be sure to send a separate envelope to school with each child.

Cash and checks are accepted at the school. If you wish to pay by bank draft or credit card, you may utilize K12 Payment Center (formerly lunch prepay).

Any money left in the account at the end of the school year will be kept in that account, allowing the student to use those funds at the beginning of the next school year.

Once the school data manager at the new school enrolls the transferred student, the student's lunch account (including any account balance they may have) will automatically transfer to the student's new school cafeteria within 24hrs.

This applies to transfers during the school year, but also applies to transfers that happen over the summer due to students graduating from Elementary or Middle schools.

If the amount of positive balance is small enough, the cafeteria cashier can issue a refund upon presentation of a parental note.  If the amount is too great to refund out of the cashier drawer (or if it is after the school year is over), the parent can contact Amanda Davis, Child Nutrition Business Manager at the Child Nutrition office at 704-736-1017 ext 20130.

K12 Payment Center is an internet-based service. K12 Payment Center allows you to place money in your child's account using you VISA, Master Card, or Discover Card. K12 Payment Center also allows you to sign up for direct withdrawal, which will transfer money from your bank account to your student's meal account at school based on low balance thresholds that you determine.  K12 Payment Center can also be set for low balance notifications via e-mail or text messages (per text message charges may apply depending of your plan).

No, only one application is needed per household. However, you must include all of the members of your household, including the children that attend Lincoln County Schools, on the application. The only exception is that foster children are considered a household of one (1), and a separate free and reduced meal application must be submitted for each of them.

The Child Nutrition Office reviews applications and eligibility determination is based on USDA guidelines. Students may also be granted free meal benefits through the process of Direct Certification. Direct Certification is a process which allows Lincoln County Schools to obtain documentation from the Lincoln County Department of Social Services (DSS) to determine the children who are members of a household currently certified to receive food stamps or TANF benefits and are therefore eligible for free meal benefits.

Yes, you may apply for free or reduced price meals any time during the school year. If you are not eligible now, but have an increase household size, a decrease in household income, become unemployed, or start receiving DSS benefits for your child(ren), you may re-submit an application at that time.

Yes. Students who were approved for benefits last year will continue receiving meals under last year's approval until a new application is processed. Students have up to 30 days to reapply for meal benefits. Students who do not reapply for the current school year will need money for meals beginning the 31st school day. New students must have an approved application on file before meal benefits begin.

No. Not unless the parent has signed a waiver of confidentiality for the specific purpose. The participants' names, eligibility status and other information provided on the application or obtained through direct certification or verification may be disclosed to certain other Federal, State or local agencies as authorized by the National School Lunch Act.

You may obtain a Diet Order form from the Child Nutrition Manager at your school, the website at www.lincoln.k12.nc.us or by calling (704) 736-4301. Menu adjustments are made only for diagnosed medical conditions. We are unable to honor personal food preferences. We do, however, offer a variety of additional menu choices and a la carte items to accommodate individual likes and dislikes.