My daughter has been getting overcharged for lunches on her meal card. I went to the school and they said they,d look into it, but blamed my 6 year old for overspending. Ive eaten with my daughter so I know firsthand what she orders and on those days they've overcharged her. I know I'm not the only parent who has dealt with this. I've also heard of lunch people not putting in the full amount of cash into a lunch account and pocketing it. Most parents don't check and just keep sending in money. Students are not given receipts for their lunches either. It's a flawed system and kids are being taken advantage of. I'm packing lunches from now on. Any other parents dealing with this? Are there other schools that have a better system or are all the cafeterias the same? Also, any kid can use my kids lunch number and they don't give your money back at the end of the year.

To stop charges for things other than lunch specify "Lunch only" on your check to the cafeteria; your daughter won;t be able to buy that ice cream afterwards.

There is no way of preventing someone else from using your lunch number; this is THE major flaw in the system. At some (all?) high (other?) schools the picture of the number owner is often (not always) displayed to the register person. In addition, if the owner has specified "lunch only" then the 2ND attempt to use the number will have a higher price associated with it that says it is NOT the first use that day; this is supposed to signal to the register person to notify the manager to confirm identities. Note that, in such a case and if it isn't prevented by the manager, the money removed from the account that day won't simply be a small increment over the price of a lunch, but a MULTIPLE of the price of a lunch.

There is no easy way around the problem of lunch numbers - requiring, say, a "food card" (like a debit card) is pretty much guaranteeing infinite hassle as kids forget to have their cards with them by the thousands every day.

Everything w.r.t. Food Services is centralized in FCPS - other than for trial runs there is no "do it my way" at an individual school.

W.r.t. theft of cash by Food Service personnel - that's a pretty serious accusation. It would be stupid for a food service worker to take a couple bucks from a deposit and potentially lose an important job over it.

You can check how much money is in your (daughter's) account by signing into https://www.mylunchmoney.com/ - that site not only will tell you how much you have but breaks out every single deduction from your account.

Here's a typical report from mylunchmoney.com:

10/18/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch EGG ROLL $2.75
10/20/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch TACOS $2.75
10/21/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch SPCYCHKN $2.75
10/24/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch HAM/CHS $2.75
10/25/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch LFTOVR1 $2.75

Few problems with MyLunchMoney.com.

1. It assesses a 'Convenience Fee' of $1.95 to every transaction. To keep these to a minimum, I have it add $50 each time. But if you don't have much money and do it $20 at a time (which I'm betting a lot of people do), you are paying an extra 10% in convenience fees. Seems like a lot for school lunch.

2. You are can only see 5 days of meal history. I'm betting this is to reduce as much as possible any disputed charges versus any technical limitation.

3. FCPS seems to have eliminated the Meal Controls functionality in mylunchmoney.

The Web stole my lunch money Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Few problems with MyLunchMoney.com.
>
> 1. It assesses a 'Convenience Fee' of $1.95 to
> every transaction. To keep these to a minimum, I
> have it add $50 each time. But if you don't have
> much money and do it $20 at a time (which I'm
> betting a lot of people do), you are paying an
> extra 10% in convenience fees. Seems like a lot
> for school lunch.

We never deposit money via mylunchmoney - instead, we just use it (rarely) to check up on what's happening. All deposits to our daughter's account are made by check to the school cafeteria; no convenience fee and the check itself is marked "lunch only".

I make my three kids lunches each night. It is cheaper and healthier. I am not knocking buying a school lunch but everyday is costly for must of us. Plus my kids are picky about what they eat and really do not care for the school fare.

Good luck with the hidden fees. I feel for you.

While that's cheaper than most, the prices have gone up a lot.

> ...I went to the school and they said they,d look into it, but blamed
> my 6 year old for overspending...

To the OP - the cafeteria manager can list everything sold to a kid and when. If the cafeteria manager says your kid is buying extra stuff (because you did not specify "lunch only") then it's pretty much guaranteed your kid is buying extra stuff.

I think the fee charged by mylunch.com is exorbitant. They are making money hand over fist for doing nothing. Once the program is set up, they just rake in the cash. I put the maximum on the card ($100) to avoid paying more fees and I would put more than $100 at a time if they let me, but no! They want to make sure they can continue highway robbery. It seems like the online payment is a service that actually SAVES the school money by not having to have more employees dealing with checks, cash, etc. every day. But you can bet it's a private vendor who is making the $1.95 every time you click on there to add money. I would love to know where that $1.95 is going. Plus they have your money until you spend it (gaining interest)---not to mention all summer like the above person stated.

This year I got smart/organized and started making my kid's lunch. I'm not sure how much cheaper it is (not a lot), but it is much better food and now he actually wants it from home.

There are tons of great lunch ideas online. Try wraps with guacamole spread and some quality deli meat. Throw in some carrots and pretzels and an apple or pear and you have a really healthy lunch that tastes great.

> ...I would love to know where that $1.95 is going...

Credit card fees?

Parental Opinion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here's a typical report from mylunchmoney.com:
>
> 10/18/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch
> EGG ROLL $2.75
> 10/20/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch
> TACOS $2.75
> 10/21/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch
> SPCYCHKN $2.75
> 10/24/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch
> HAM/CHS $2.75
> 10/25/2011 Your Kid's Name Her School Lunch
> LFTOVR1 $2.75


you like egg rools?

usernmae44 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> you like egg [rolls]?

I luv egg rolls, however that's what my daughter surprisingly had for lunch, not me.

Eggs rolls=fat rolls. They should not be serving any fried food in school. Gross.

We need to get Moochelle Obama on this right away!! She's looking out for our kids!

Egg rolls? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Eggs rolls=fat rolls. They should not be serving
> any fried food in school. Gross.

I'm of mixed opinion about the food that is served in the cafeterias these days. Food Services has removed just about everything tastey from the menus in the name of nutrition. Within the last year they removed cookies, for example, that sold well and replaced them with some others that apparently were horrible (though "more nutritious"). Someone apparently caught wind of the fact that cookie sales plummetted and actually ATE one of the new cookies; the old cookies reappeared.

I expect Food Services to have to be supported by external funding eventually, maybe soon, since their food quality (NOT nutrition!) has steadily been declining. Right now Food Services is completely supported by food sales - if they lose those sales, they need external funds...tax money.

My student's card was being used by other students. We discovered that there was no money left on the card when there should have been. The cafeteria lady told me that students there regularly "borrow" other students cards (sometimes randomly, sometimes knowingly to upset sensitive students). The cafeteria ladies have their hands full, I realize, but the vice principal did nothing about it. Now, of course, he is a full-fledged principal, because FCPS always passes ineffective administrators up the ladder.

Why dont you just do what the Yukon and Denali owning parents at my kids school do,,,file for free and reduced, nobody ever checks the paperwork, biggest school scam going

No adult would ever eat the food sold in the FCPS. I guess the poor kids will eat it but mine will not touch it.

who the hell pays for lunches?
Attachments:

I make my kids lunch. I asked my son tonight who at his table of friends bought school lunch and he said only one kid.

He said the school food is gross and smells old.

SAme thing happened to my kid about 4 yrs ago in middle school... I now give him $5/day for lunch...paying cash is the way to go..

Just because food is nutritious does not mean it has to taste bad. The problem with the school cafeteria is that they use too much food that is pulled out of boxes and not enough fresh ingredients. They rely on fat for flavor because they don't have fresh (which gives flavor). It's pretty much about price. Yes, fresh costs more because it doesn't have the shelf life. I am probably paying more for my kid's bag lunches, but not significantly more given the quality of the food I am packing. This stuff is going into your kid's body folks. Don't clog their arteries too much already. God knows they don't get enough exercise so we do have to watch their diets despite what you think of Michelle Obama.

I do like the $5 a day cash idea in order to save the $1.95 fee and stealing the card issue and preventing someone else from making interest on the money in the lunch account. I know that high school boys eat more than one lunch so $5 a day is about right. However, consider bag lunches once in a while. Healthier.

I had two kids in elementary school in west part of Fairfax County. But I noticed they are low on lunch money way too soon. So I tracked their purchase on mylunchmoney.com. The school charges are wrong and they don't give you a complete breakdown for each day on mylunchmoney.com. So my son gets charged $4.90 one day as well as an overcharge of about 50 cents a day. I spoke to my sons each day on what they buy extra and see if they matched and my son was like "no, thats not right".

To make this short, I blocked their lunch extras and gave them money to buy any extras. School will not accept this method. My sons could not buy extras. The school would not take money for snacks so my kids could not buy any extras for the rest of the year.

I think the lack of oversight has made employee theft way to comfortable. If you steal 50 cents from each kid everyday...

> ...So my son gets charged $4.90 one day as well as an overcharge of about 50
> cents a day...

That's multiple lunches, not just "lunch plus a snack".

If your account is marked "lunch only" then that's all that will be allowed to be removed from the account - ONE lunch - before a manager should get involved.

Cash is fine for buying extras, BTW, if the kid is old enough (I think they DO place restrictions on the younger elementary students).

Accusing the food services workers of stealing money is stupid - that's all, it's just stupid to make such a groundless accusation like that - it shows a TOTAL lack of deeper thought other than spite on your part - really stupid on your part and, frankly, you should be thoroughly ashamed at that lack of thought.

MyLunchmoney.com no longer allows "tracking" of purchases at our elementary school. The website claims that it's the school that does not support tracking.
What's the point of using the service if you can't follow your child's purchases. It's not that much of a convenience since they charge a two dollar fee for every transaction.

Parental Opinion; I was having lunch with my daughter one day when I overheard a food service worker say to a little boy in second grade who was trying to buy a cookie, "you can't have a cookie 'cause the govenor's paying for your lunch." Don't tell me those people can't be nasty, unscrupulous bitches.

cafe-tears Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...It's not that much of a convenience since they charge
> a two dollar fee for every transaction...

That is incorrect - the use of mylunchmoney.com is free. If you want to make a DEPOSIT to your kid's account via that site, they will charge a fee. I've never used the site to make a deposit. Instead, I always pay by check with the check clearly marked (per the instructions of Food Services) "lunch only". Works perfectly.

> ...I overheard a food service
> worker say to a little boy in second grade who was
> trying to buy a cookie, "you can't have a cookie
> 'cause the govenor's paying for your lunch."

(1) What would you have the food service worker say to the kid?

(2) There's a BIG difference between STUPIDLY saying "They're stealing money! (which shows a TOTAL lack of thinking on the accuser's part...THINK about it) and overhearing part of a conversation that accurately relates why a kid can't have a cookie (though I'd bet the FS person said "government" rather than "governor").

> ... Don't tell me those people can't be nasty, unscrupulous bitches.

You obviously have problems with FS folks that extends much further than just an accounting problem.

I think we all have similar problems with some of the food service workers when they treat children like that.

Cafe-tears Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think we all have similar problems with some of
> the food service workers when they treat children
> like that.

Again, what would you have the food service worker say? The kid is using government money to buy lunch; that money is restricted in use. The kid tried to buy a snack. The FS worker accurately said "You cannot".

Are there other words that you would have the FS worker use?

State them!

Perhpas the same thing they say to every other child whose lunch card is "lunch only." No need to announce who is paying for it. That was unnecessary and mean.

I think the cafeteria lady was undermining the civics lessons that the child is learning in class. The governor is not paying for his snacks---that could be a very confusing statement for a second grader and he will probably get an SOL question wrong in the future. The lunch program is a federally subsidized program so we all know that the president is paying for that snack. ;-)

no wonder we can't make AYP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the cafeteria lady was undermining the
> civics lessons that the child is learning in
> class. The governor is not paying for his
> snacks---that could be a very confusing statement
> for a second grader and he will probably get an
> SOL question wrong in the future. The lunch
> program is a federally subsidized program so we
> all know that the president is paying for that
> snack. ;-)

Thanks for catching on :)