Free & Reduced Lunch

Your children may qualify for free meals or for reduced price meals. To apply for free or reduced-price meals, use the Household Eligibility Application, which can be printed and turned into your child's school or the Palos 118 Central Office. 

If you believe you are eligible for free/reduced lunch benefits, you will need to complete the online application.  Depending on household income and number of people in  your household your student may be eligible to receive free or reduced priced lunch benefits through the National School Lunch Program.  If you wish to apply for these benefits and have not recently received a letter confirming your direct certification, you will need to submit an application.  Note that there will be an application in your application history.  This application is automatically generated for the normal lunch pricing and can be ignored.

To submit an application, login into the Skyward Parent Access and Foodservice module.  Once there, select any student on your account from the red text drop down menu near the top of the page.

 

Then you must click on the Applications tab.  You cannot access an application from the All Student tab, you must select a student.  Once an application is submitted for a student on your account it will apply to all students in your household.

On the next window, you will need to click Add Application.

Please read the directions and follow the online prompts to complete the application.  Paper applications are also available at the Central Administration office at 8800 West 119^th Street, Palos Park.  If you have any questions please contact the district office at 448-4800.

If your family qualifies for the free or reduced lunch program, here is a brief review of how the program works.

In some instances many families whose students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch have been charged for meals because their child has not selected all the components of a reimbursable meal.

For a meal to be eligible for a free or reduced rate, students must choose 3 full portions of the 5 meal components offered, with at least one choice being a fruit or vegetable.

If your student does not select all 3 of the components of a free meal, the cost of the entrée gets charged to your family's school account.

The 5 food group selections offered each day include:

• milk
• fruit
• vegetable
• meat/or protein (or an approved meat alternative)
• whole grain

As an example, a student might choose a chicken sandwich—which counts as a protein and grain—and a whole apple as a reimbursable meal.

If a student chooses only the sandwich and milk, this would not be a reimbursable meal until the student also selects a serving of a fruit or vegetable.

To help educate students at each school, the District and food service provider Aramark have signage posted in the lunch service line which illustrates the correct components of food from each group that should be selected for each meal to qualify as a free/reduced price lunch.

The District asks that parents review with their student the correct number of selections from each food group to select in order for them to receive their free lunch (Please see the info graphic provided by Aramark below that explains the process.)

If you have further questions, please contact Kathy Pagoria in the District Business Office at kpagoria@palos118.org.