Food Services
Children need healthy meals to learn. Chatham Central School District offers healthy meals every school day.
NYS Summer Feeding & EBT Programs
Summer Feeding Sites
Nutritious free meals are available for children and teens 18 and younger at many locations throughout the nation throughout the summer while school is out of session. Please visit the USDA website to find a location near you, or text “Summer Meals” to 97779 or call 1-866-348-6479 to find a site nearby (in Columbia County, there are sites in Hudson and New Lebanon).
EBT Program
The new Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program helps low-income families buy food for their school-aged children during the summer. Each eligible child will get $120 in food benefits.
Eligible children will receive Summer EBT food benefits on an EBT card. Families can use their Summer EBT food benefits to buy food like fruits, vegetables, meat, whole grains, and dairy at authorized retail food stores, farmers markets, and anywhere else SNAP is accepted.
Most children will be automatically eligible for Summer EBT and do not need to do anything to enroll. However, some children may need to apply. An online application will be available in July.
Automatically Eligible:
The child received SNAP, Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid at any time in the 2023-24 school year, OR
The child has been determined eligible by their school for free/reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program during the 2023-24 school year.
Must Apply:
The child is not automatically eligible, AND
The child attends a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program, AND
The household meets the income requirements for free/reduced-price school meals.
Unused Summer EBT benefits expire and are removed from the EBT card in 122 days from the date they are issued. All unused benefits will expire after 122 days. Families should use their benefits soon after they are received. To learn more about Summer EBT, including when and how food benefits will be issued, and how to use them, visit OTDA.ny.gov/SummerEBT.
2024-25 Meal Prices
All Chatham CSD students are eligible to receive one free breakfast and one free lunch per school day. Students wishing to buy a second meal or snacks may do so.
Breakfast: $1.50
Lunch: $3.10
Milk: $.60
Menus
Online Prepayment for School Meals
Chatham’s Food Service Department provides parents a convenient, easy and secure online prepayment service to deposit money into your child’s school meal account at any time. This service also provides parents the ability to view your child’s account balance through a website called myschoolbucks.com. By having money in each child’s account prior to entering the cafeteria, we find the lunch lines move along much faster and your child has more time to eat and be with friends. Also, parents will have the ability to print out a copy of their child’s eating history report. This history report will show you all dates and times that your child has purchased a breakfast or lunch within the past thirty days. Learn more.
Federal Nutrition Standards
School cafeterias across the country are required to meet federal nutrition standards that aim to promote a healthy lifestyle and address the rising rate of childhood obesity and increased health complications in our population. The guidelines set regulations for portion size yet offer a wide variety of milk, fruits, vegetables, proteins and grains. Examples of these new federal regulations include:
Specific portion sizes individualized for each grade range (K-5, 6-8, 9-12)
Only fat free or low fat milk being offered (flavored milk will only be offered as fat free)
Larger servings and more variety of fruits and vegetables
More whole grain products such as breads, pasta, and cereals
Specific calorie ranges, limited saturated fats and only naturally occurring trans fats
Students must select a minimum of a ½ cup of fruit or vegetable on their tray
Chatham CSD’s food service staff work within these guidelines to create healthy, tasty, and convenient meals for students. If you would like more information regarding meal pattern requirements, please contact: Barbara Murray, Food Service Supervisor at 518-392-1536 or visit the Child Nutrition website at: www.nysed.gov.
Meal Charge Policy
The goal of our District is to provide students access to nutritious low-cost or no-cost meals each school day and to ensure that a student whose parent/guardian has unpaid school meal fees is not treated differently than a student whose parent/guardian does not have unpaid meal fees.
If you have questions about Chatham Central School District’s Food Services or prepayment, please contact Barbara Murray, Food Service Supervisor, at 518-392-1536.