Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Free and Reduced-Price Meals 

• How does a child qualify for free and reduced-price meals?
  For the 2024-2025 school year, ALL Pasadena ISD students will receive free breakfast and lunch. There are no meal applications to complete. We are able to offer free breakfast and lunch thanks to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).

• What does the school district do to protect the personal information about a child?
  All information is kept confidential in Nutrition Services and is only given to authorized school district officials.

National School Breakfast/Lunch Program

• Is the school district required to meet any nutritional guidelines? 
  The federal government requires that meals served in our cafeterias meet specific guidelines regarding portion size, food choices, and content. For more information on school meal standards, visit this link.

• Where can parents find nutritional information about the meals? 
  Nutritional analysis of our meals may be found on www.schoolcafe.com/pasadenaisd. You can choose to 'View Menus (As a guest)' or login. Then, on the left-hand menu, scroll to the bottom and select 'School Menus' then select your campus and meal.

Offer versus Serve

• Who determines what food goes on my child's tray? 
  By federal law, school personnel must allow the child to choose what he/she wants to eat from the selections available. 

• What is a reimbursable meal? 
  Only meals that meet the government requirements for meal patterns are subsidized. We follow the Traditional meal pattern from the USDA, so five food components are offered at lunch each day. These are 1) Meat or meat alternates, 2) Vegetables, 3) Fruit, 4) Grains, and 5) Milk. In order for a meal to be reimbursable, at least 3 of these 5 food components need to be chosen, and at least 1 of these 3 must be a Fruit or Vegetable.

• How many fruits and vegetables can be selected as part of a lunch meal? 
  Each day at least two vegetables and two fruit choices are offered at lunch. Students may choose up to two vegetables and one or two fruits as part of a lunch meal without an additional charge. If more servings are desired, they may be purchased a la carte.   

Menu Selection/Quality

• Who determines what food choices will be available on the daily menu? 
  The reimbursable menus are planned to meet the federal nutrition guidelines, while considering the preferences of the students. In addition, nutritional analysis is conducted by a Registered Dietitian on all reimbursable menus to be sure that they meet the RDA for each age group.

• What efforts are made to keep foods at the correct temperatures?  
  Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures are followed to verify that food is cooked or held at safe temperatures. Therefore, temperatures are monitored during receiving, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, holding, assembling, packaging, transporting, and serving.

• Why are a la carte foods sold in my school? 
  Government guidelines allow Nutrition Services to sell a la carte items that meet certain nutrition values, such as baked chips or small ice cream.  If a parent does not want their child to be able to purchase any of these items, they should send a note to the Cafeteria Manager.

Meal Payments

• Why do adult meals cost more than student meals? 
  We do not receive any monetary or commodity reimbursement for adult meals, so we are required to charge higher prices for their meals. Federal regulation prohibits us from giving free lunches to adults or from utilizing program funds for the purpose of subsidizing adult meals. 

• How can parents pay for meals? 
  Cash payments may be sent in sealed envelopes labeled with student names and ID numbers. Online credit card payments may also be made by going to www.SchoolCafe.com and creating a student meal account.

  • Parents may check purchases and account balances from this account. They may also set low balance limits so the system alerts them when another payment is needed.
  • If a family has more than one child in the District, they can handle all online prepayments from the same online account. 
  • Payments may be made with a major credit card.
  • In order to use the online prepayment service, a small convenience fee for each transaction will be assessed to cover the bank fees.  The convenience fee is $2.75 per deposit transaction. Parents placing money into multiple meal accounts will only be charged one convenience fee per deposit transaction. Pasadena School District does not profit from the use of this site.
    • Cash payment is also accepted in the serving line.