Food Service

Welcome to the Northeastern Local School District’s Food Service Department.

Our mission is to provide quality, delicious, nutritious, low-cost, customer-friendly meals for the children of our district. We are a team of 22 proud and dedicated employees. Last year, we prepared and served the Northeastern children approximately 282,000 lunches and 82,000 breakfasts. We would love to see these numbers grow and feed many more.Our staff knows there is a strong correlation between good nutrition and learning. With that in mind, menus have been designed to abide by National School Breakfast and Lunch Program nutritional regulations. Portion sizes are age-appropriate, and meals fall within federal levels for calories, sodium, saturated fat, and contain no trans-fat. You may recognize many of the brands we use in our meals each day, such as Kellogg’s, General Mills, Pillsbury, Klosterman Bakery, Reiter Dairy, Land O’Lakes, Tyson Chicken, Jennie O Turkey, Schwan’s, McCain Foods, JTM, and Smucker’s to name a few. Items on the menu are baked or steamed, not fried, including French fries. All of the grain items we offer are whole grain-rich. A variety of fruit is available daily, and over the week, vegetable selections cover five subgroup categories. Our milk products are 1% low-fat or fat-free. All the snacks served a la carte meet USDA Smart Snacks in Schools criteria. Breakfast is available in all buildings daily (unless we have a closing or delay). Children who eat breakfast benefit from improved cognitive function, memory, test scores, and attendance. They are less likely to be overweight, too.

Healthy eating helps kids grow, develop, and succeed in school and other activities. It is also critical in preventing childhood and adolescent health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Healthy eating can lower the risk of future health problems such as heart disease, strokes, and cancer. Please partner with us in encouraging healthy eating while your child is at home and/or away from school. Additionally, our staff has been trained in food safety and sanitation protocols, including procedures for Norovirus and COVID-19. We take the health and well-being of our customers seriously.

PaySchools Central Information

Beginning August 29, 2023, NELSD’s food service staff will accept deposits into student meal accounts. Due to COVID-19, we encourage families to use online student meal accounts to limit the handling of cash. You may deposit money at any time into student meal accounts via the online system PaySchools Central.

PaySchools Manage Lunch Account Button — **Click the button above to manage your child's lunch account, complete a Free and Reduced Meal Application online or pay school fees with PaySchoolsCentral.**

PaySchools Central Parent User Guide

Shortened PaySchool Central How-to-Guide

PaySchools Central 2.0 Guia De Usuario (July 2020 Release)

Shortened PaySchools Central 2.0 Guia De Usuario

Questions may be directed to PaySchools Central by calling (877) 393-6628 or emailing psc_help@payschools.com. Users will be charged a $1.65 internet convenience fee for transactions up to $24.99. For transactions ranging from $25 to $49.99, there will be an internet convenience fee of $2.00. For anything over $50, there will be a 4.50 percent internet convenience fee. School fees and other non-food service payments will incur a 4.50 percent internet convenience fee. Payments made online will be credited by the end of the next business day. The district will pick up the convenience fee for the months of August and September 2023.

Meal Charging Policy

Our lunch charge policy permits students to charge up to three lunches. Repayment is expected the next day.

No breakfast charging will be permitted.

For school year 23-24, Northeastern Local Schools will be collecting and processing National School Lunch Program applications. We are no longer permitted to provide free meals to everyone.

Due to time constraints, change will no longer be given at the time of the sale. It will be added to the student’s account to be used for future purchases. This will help each student get through the line faster. Also, students should memorize their personal pin numbers for faster service. Please plan accordingly when determining if you will send cash, make a deposit, or submit an online transaction for your student.

Should your child’s account get into the negative, our food management system will generate a reminder email to you (if we have your email address on record) asking that you replenish funds.

Meal Prices

Important Lunch Information

Northeastern Local Food Service Department is committed to serving nutritious meals to the students of this district in strict adherence to the regulations set forth by the State of Ohio and the USDA. The Northeastern Board of Education requires food service to be self-supporting. Federal regulations require any school participating in the National School Lunch Program to operate as a non-profit organization. Within these constraints, it is imperative that revenue meets cost. For this reason, lunch charge activity must be regulated. In order to encourage greater parent and child responsibility while controlling lunch charge debts, the following shall be implemented.
1.   No child may accumulate more than three (3) lunch charges at a time.
2.   Lunch will be denied after the third charge.
3.   Payment shall be made the next school day after charge was incurred.
4.   Grade cards will be withheld until the charges are paid.
5.   Charge notices will be sent home with the child and/or by email.

USDA Nondiscrimination Statement

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-OASCR%20P-Complaint-Form-0508-0002-508-11-28-17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

Mail:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or
Fax:
(833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
Email:
program.intake@usda.gov

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.