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• See the NutritionServices Calendar for important meetings and deadlines.
• Application and Guidelines for Temporary Food Service (pdf)
• Sanitation: The Big Three (pdf)
• Nutrition: Competitive Foods Sale Rule Grid
• Health and Nutrition
• "Recess Before Lunch" This 11 minute video describes why the district is converting to a recess before lunch schedule. It includes rationale and challenges from the principals' perspective and shows how we conducted plate-waste research to prove that children eat more lunch when they play first and then eat.

• Breakfast and lunch menus
  • After School Snacks
  • Breakfast in the Classroom
  • Elementary school menus
  • Balanced Calendar school menus
  • Middle school menus
  • High school menus
• About Meal Prices
• Nutritional Value of School Breakfast and Lunch
• Children with special dietary needs
  

The Las Cruces Public School District takes part in the National School Lunch Program/Breakfast Program/Snack Program. Meals are served every school day.

• See guidelines for free or for reduced price meals.
• Children may buy breakfast for $.80.
• Lunch
  • Elementary lunch is $1.50,
  • middle school lunch is $1.60,
  • and high school lunch is $1.75.
• Meals are also available free or at a reduced price: $.30 for breakfast and $.40 for lunch.
• Snacks are free at eligible after-school programs.
• B. T. Washington, Cesar Chavez, MacArthur, Sunrise and Valley View are Provisional II Schools so all students receive their meals at no cost. No application is necessary for these students.

If you are now getting Food Stamps or FDPIR for your child, that child can receive free meals.

If your total household income is at or below the amounts listed on the Income Chart (below), your child can receive free or reduced price meals. The cost for a reduced breakfast is $.30 and a reduced lunch is $.40.

If you have a foster child, that child may be eligible for benefits regardless of your income.

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How to Apply for Free or Reduced Price Meals

An application for free or reduced meals is available at your child’s school. Check with the Nutrition Services Cashier in the cafeteria or with the School Secretary in the office. To get free or reduced priced meals for your child(ren), carefully complete the application and return it to the cashier in the cafeteria. Do not return it to the teacher. You will receive a letter notifying you of your eligibility within 10 days of receipt of your application.

If you now get food stamps, be sure to include your food stamp number on the application. All applications should include all members of the household, income information or food stamp number, parent or guardian signature and social security number. If the guardian has no social security number then mark the appropriate box under the social security number space. Indicate which household members are students by writing in the school name and grade. If there is no income, write in zero but do not leave the income space blank. An application that is not complete cannot be approved and will be returned.

Other Information

Verification: You eligibility may be checked by school officials at any time during the school year. You may be asked to send information to prove that your child should receive free or reduced priced meals.

Fair Hearing: If you do not agree with the decision made on your application or the results of verification, you may wish to discuss it with the Nutrition Services Director, 527-5996. You also have the right to a fair hearing. You can do this by calling or writing the following official: Beverly Hine, 505 S. Main St., Ste. 249, Las Cruces, NM 88001, or call 527-5884.

Reporting Changes: If your child gets meals based on income information, you must tell the school if your household income increases by more than $50 per month or $600 per year. If your child gets meals based on Food Stamps information, you must advise the school if you no longer get Food Stamps.

Confidentiality: The information on the application will be used only to allow your child to get free or reduced priced meals.

In the operation of the child feeding programs, no child will be discriminated against because of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. If you believe you have been discriminated against, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (200)720-5964.

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Establishing healthy habits plays a part to increase graduation rates, decrease absenteeism and create a climate for academic success and achievement. Las Cruces Public Schools is only one of seven districts in the nation to participate in this project to improve health. See Healthy Schools & Healthy Families.

All Breakfast and Lunch meals served under the National Lunch Program and National Breakfast Program are required to meet specific nutritional guidelines. To ensure that the meals served in the Las Cruces Public Schools are, the menus are analyzed using a computer software program that has been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture. The meals are averaged across a week. The table below has the nutritional guidelines that are followed.

If you are interested in looking at the national analysis or discussing it, contact Nancy Cathey, , Nutrition Services Director, 527-5996.

The federal register (volume 60 No. 113 – Department of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Service, 7 CFR Section 210) states that schools shall make substitutions for students who are considered handicapped under 7 CFR part 15b and whose handicap restricts their diet. Schools may also make substitutions for non-handicapped students who are unable to consume the regular lunch because of medical or other special dietary needs. Substitutions shall be made on a case-by-case basis only when supported by a statement of the need for substitutions that includes recommended alternate foods. Such statement shall, in the case of handicapped students, be signed by a physician or in the case of a non-handicap student, by a recognized medical authority

Variations or substitutions for ethnic, religious or economic reasons may be approved on an experimental or continuing basis in any school where there is evidence that such variations are nutritionally sound and are necessary.

If your child needs a dietary substitution other than limited intake of milk, contact the Nutrition Services Director at 527-5996. If the need is for limited intake of milk, provide the medical note to the Nutrition Services Manager at your child’s school.

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