The Marion County Child Nutrition Program would like to provide notification of the changes to school meals for the 2022-23 school year. The federal waivers that have allowed school districts to provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to all students will expire. Normal foodservice operations will resume.
This means that families who do not qualify for free or reduced meals will resume paying for school meals when school starts on August 9, 2022. Full paying students will pay $1.25 for Breakfast and $2.60 for lunch. Reduced price Breakfast is $0.30 and Reduced Lunch is $0.40.
Families are encouraged to complete a Free & Reduced Meals Application online for the 2022-23 school year. The online application can be found at https://paypams.com/OnlineApp.aspx. The link can also be found on the district website, www.mcbe.net. If you filled out a form online BEFORE July 1, 2022 you must fill out another form for the upcoming school year, please do so as soon as possible to assure your student will have the free or reduced status if they qualify when school starts.
Each student who qualifies free or reduced meals by August 31, 2022 will also receive a $391 P-EBT card in September 2022 from DHR. Make sure your child’s address is correct at their school. P-EBT cards are not issued by the CNP department. If you have questions please contact Alabama Dept. of Human Resources P-EBT customer service at 1-800-410-5827. You can also visit their website at https://dhr.alabama.gov/food-assistance/
Additionally, many students have grown accustomed to picking up school breakfast and lunch at no charge over the past 2 years. Please take time before school starts back August 10th to discuss your expectations of your child selecting school meals or extra items with their meal since this could cost money for your household.
PayPams is a service offered by the Child Nutrition Program which allows parents to view their child’s meal account and make payments. Through this secure website, parents can view meal account balances, meal and A la carte purchases, schedule payments, receive low balance reminders and make meal payments with a credit card online. There is no cost to create an account or to check account balances. However, PayPams charges a service fee of $1.95 every time you deposit money into your account with a credit card. There is no cost to create an account or to check account balances.