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Free and Reduced Lunch

Lunch foods and school supplies

Families may apply for free or reduced-price meals at any time during the school year. Every year, one new family application must be completed and returned to school. Applications are approved based on the federal income chart. (See below.) If you need an application, it is available in each school office.

You have two ways to apply for meal benefits. Select one of the two methods to apply:

A. ONLINE APPLICATION: Families can apply online in two ways: 

SchoolCafe is the system you can use to submit the free or reduced meal application as well as make payments and get low balance alerts. We encourage all families to register for a SchoolCafe account. You can link your child(ren) to your account using their student ID.

COMPASS is a system currently being used by DPW that allows citizens of Pennsylvania to apply for programs such as Food Stamps, Energy Assistance, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), etc., online. Applications for free or reduced-price meals as part of the school lunch program are available online. You may complete the "Household Meal Benefit Application" online or you may use the paper "Household Meal Benefit Application" provided by your school. The information you enter on COMPASS is kept confidential and used only for the purposes indicated during the application process.

B. PAPER APPLICATION: Your child will also bring home a paper application for free and reduced-price meals. Please fill out one Family Application per household listing everyone residing in your household. If you complete the paper application, return it to school with your youngest child. The qualifying status for each child is safeguarded in our Point of Sale System.