Paid Lunch Equity (PLE): Guidance for School Year 2023-2024 (SY 2023-24)

SP11-2023 

The Minnesota Free School Meals Program (MN-FSM) is a permanent state-funded, non-pricing meal program in which all students receive one free breakfast and one free lunch each school day. There is no requirement for participating schools to evaluate the need to raise the student paid lunch price using the PLE tool or via the equivalent procedure. 

Please be advised that the requirement to report paid lunch prices is still in effect per U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal regulations. See 7 CFR 210.14(e)(7). Instruction for accurately reporting paid lunch prices is found here: Paid Lunch Price Reporting. Important: When entering prices, do not enter $0.00 for all three levels (Elementary Kindergarten-5, Middle/Junior High 6-8, and High School 9-12), unless the school site is serving meals at all three levels. For additional information on pricing a la carte items and other details of operating the MN-FSM Program, please see Free School Meals Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). 

New SNP Resource: Direct Certification Handbook 

Nutrition Program Services has published new resource for sponsors to refer to when completing Direct Certification (DC). This document combines and delivers updates to several existing documents and provides new guidance pertaining to the addition of Medicaid and Food Distribution on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) to the automated matching process. All sponsors are urged to review the handbook to ensure accuracy and compliance when completing the DC process. DC Handbook – Public Schools. 

Additional guidance for non-public schools will be available soon. The basic guidance will be the same as for public schools but tailored to meet the unique needs of schools not using the Minnesota Automated Reporting Student System (MARSS). 

Note: The first DC data match for SY 2023-24 is expected to be available in the Cyber-Linked Interactive Child Nutrition System (CLiCS) mid to late July 2023.  

Adult Meal Pricing Requirements for School Year 2023-24 

The required minimum meal prices for adults for SY 2023-24 will remain the same as SY 2022-23 and are listed below. Sponsors contracting with a vended meal provider or food service management company may need to adjust upwards in order to cover the full cost of the meal. 

See FNS Instruction 782-5 REV. 1. 

Minimum Adult Prices for SY 2023-24 

Breakfast: $2.25 

Lunch: $4.95 

Minimum Prices for Meals Served to Adults and Other Non-Program Meals 

School Nutrition Programs funds may not subsidize meals served to adults or other non-program meals, such as second meals. The meal price must be set high enough so that the cost of the meal is fully paid by the customer. (Meals may be provided at no charge only to “program” adults, as defined in Prohibition on Subsidizing Meals for Non-Program Adults on the School Nutrition Programs Financial Management webpage of the Minnesota Department of Education website). 

Healthy Meals Incentive Initiative 

As part of a cooperative agreement to implement the USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, Action for Healthy Kids is offering Recognition Awards to celebrate school food authorities that have made significant improvements to the nutritional quality of their school meals. The Recognition Awards application opened on June 30 and will remain open through SY 2024-25. Learn more about the awards categories and criteria. 

Summer Food, Summer Moves Resource Kit 

The USDA Team Nutrition's Summer Food, Summer Moves Resource Kit includes fun and healthy activities for kids and their families/caregivers. SFSP operators may request free printed copies while supplies last. The materials are also available in Spanish.