August 31, 2010

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to school! Grand Rapids Christian Elementary School is pleased to offer a new hot lunch program that will provide nutritious meals for our students to help them achieve academic success in school. Lunches will include fresh fruit, whole grains, and vegetables. Hot lunch is available five days a week and an online payment system is available in order to speed up meal service to students. 

Details of the program:

• We will participate in the Child Nutrition Program, so free and reduced-price meals will be available to eligible students. 
• Click here to learn more about the Free and Reduced-Price School Meals Family Application. Applications can be picked up in the GRCES office. Please return your application to the school office at GRCES, located at 1508 Alexander SE. If you are not interested in applying for free and reduced-priced meals, simply fill in your name and address and check the box: “I do not want to apply for free or reduced-price meals"   and then return your application form to the GRCES office.
• You will notice occasional references and links to Grand Rapids Public Schools Nutrition Center in "Nutrition Connection" - the news section of the menu. We are partnering with GRPS to bring students this lunch program.  
• Hot lunch will be available five days a week, beginning September 7, at the Evergreen campus.
• Student lunches are $2.25; Adult lunches are $3.00; milk only is .30 cents.
• Hot lunch orders will be placed daily in the classrooms (K-5th grade).
• There is a new way to pay for your child's lunch, through Mealpay Plus, a cashless system. Please make sure your child’s account through Mealpay Plus is set up and an initial deposit is made prior to the first day of school, September 7. Make pre-payments for hot lunch online by going to the Mealpay Plus website. Your child’s ID # will be needed to set-up the account and may be obtained by emailing Sue Bylsma at sbylsma@grcs.org.
• If you have questions regarding Mealpay Plus, there is an extensive "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) section on their website.
• Our school-wide policy is: students with a zero account balance will not be able to receive hot lunch and no cash will be received during lunch service.
• There is a hot lunch supervisor at GRCES, but assistance from parent volunteers will still be needed to assist in serving hot lunch to students.
• Payment in full for semester one is $155.25 at GRCES, and payment in full for semester one at Evergreen is $144.00 (due to fewer hot lunch days at Evergreen).
• Milk only for semester one is $20.70 at GRCES,  and milk only for semester one is $19.20 at the Evergreen campus.