The Douglas County School District (DCSD) opted into the Healthy School Meals for All program for the school year 2023-24. This means that all students will have access to reimbursable meals at their school at no cost. A la carte purchases and doubles will continue to be offered, but students will need to pay for them. These purchases will be charged to the student’s meal account if they have money in their MySchoolBucks account, or the student may pay for the food items with cash.
According to Nutrition Services, lunch is made up of five components—grains, protein, vegetables, fruit and dairy. Students can choose all five components, but to qualify for a reimbursable lunch, students must take three of the five components with at least one of them being a serving of fruits or vegetables.
If you feel it’s appropriate based on your student’s lunch preferences, you’re welcome to fund his/her MySchoolBucks lunch account. Please note, bottled water will no longer be offered for free, but 20 oz water bottles will be available for purchase. In addition, students will use their student id number to order lunches, so it would be helpful if our older students know their number and can enter it at check out. (New families: please see the instructions on the payments webpage to set up your student’s account in MySchoolBucks.)
DCSD encourages parents to complete a Free and Reduced Application if they normally would do so. The outcome of the applications is directly tied to District funding. The 2023-24 Free and Reduced Meal Benefits information is available on the DCSD Nutrition Services website under the Free and Reduced tab.
To learn more about the school lunch program, please see the Nutrition Services website.