The Breakfast and Lunch
Program
South Colonie Schools offer breakfast and lunch to all students. If there is a two-hour delay, no breakfast will be served in any buildings except for the high school. For more information, please contact the Food Service Department Director Renee Hanks at 869-3576, ext.2452.
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Free and Reduced Meals Available For Qualifying Families
South Colonie participates in the National School Lunch Program providing nutritious meals for students free or at a reduced price of 25 cents. Free or reduced priced meals are provided daily based on household size and income. All information is kept strictly confidential. To see whether your family qualifies for this program all you need to do is complete an application available at your child’s school or contact the South Colonie Food Service Department at 869-3576. Only one application needs to be submitted per household. You will be notified within in 4-5 business days if you qualify for the program. An application package is mailed home to all parents in late August. Parents are encouraged to submit the completed application to their child's school or district office BEFORE the start of school each year. The application can also be downloaded by clicking here.
Pay for
Your Child's School Meals Online!
ATTENTION PARENTS: The online payment system, MyNutriKids.com, will be closed for the summer, June 25 - August 15. You will be able to resume processing online payments on August 16. Have a great summer!
You can now pay for your child's meals from the comfort of your home using MyNutriKids.com - a secure online service that lets you pre-pay for meals online using a credit card, debit card or Paypal account. MyNutriKids allows you the convenience of adding funds to your child's meal account, scheduling automatic payments, opting to receive an electronic “low funds” reminder message and viewing a monthly report of your child's daily spending and purchases. For complete instructions on how to sign up for and use South Colonie's online meal payment system, click here. (pdf) If you have questions about any aspect of the MyNutriKids program you can access the Parents Quick Reference Guide (pdf). The online payment service is not available to students attending the Central Avenue Learning Center (CALC Program).
Helpful Child Nutrition Stories For Parents
The Many Lessons of Mealtimes (pdf)
IS EATING A GOOD BREAKFAST REALLY IMPORTANT?
A hungry child cannot learn. Our breakfast program offers all children a critical jump start at the beginning of their school day. Children who aren’t hungry feel better, learn better, and behave better. Studies have found that students who eat breakfast have a general increase in math grades and reading scores, increased student attention, reduced nurse visits, and improved student behaviors.
HOW HEALTHY ARE SCHOOL MEALS?
School lunches provide one-third of the recommended dietary intake for calories, protein and vitamins A and C, iron and calcium. On average a meal contains less than 30 percent of calories from fat and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. In recent years, South Colonie has increased the use of whole grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables.
South Colonie Offers Choose Sensibly Program
Choose Sensibly is a campaign initiated by the New York State School Food Service Association to provide support to member schools as they seek to change customer buying patterns. By adopting standards for snacks which support the Dietary Guidelines, and identifying those choices for their customers, school food service departments hope to educate students to make wise choices for snacks.
What are the standards for Choose Sensibly? To be considered a sensible choice, a snack should contain:
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7 grams or less of fat
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2 grams or less of saturated fat
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15 grams or less of sugar
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360 milligrams or less of sodium
HOW DO YOU MAKE NUTRITIOUS SCHOOL MEALS APPEALING TO KIDS?
The Food Services Program keeps a close eye on meal counts and student feedback to determine what the students want to eat. Students have a good variety to choose from.
SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT MY CHILD’S EATING HABITS?
There is no better time than the early years to make an impact on the lifelong eating and exercise habits that can contribute to health maintenance and disease prevention. Medical authorities and nutrition researchers have documented that meeting nutritional requirements throughout childhood is essential to full intellectual development. There is compelling evidence that nutrition impacts a child's behavior, school performance, and overall cognitive development.
National Honors For Colonie Central High School Taco Pockets Recipe
Colonie Central High School has built a reputation for producing award-winning graduates. After all, you are what you eat. Just ask the high school cafeteria staff. Their latest “south of the border” kitchen creation finished in the Top 10 among recipes entered in a national taste test sponsored by South Colonie meat vendor JTM Food Group of Ohio. full story
OGS Awards $5,000 To District For 'Innovative' School Meal Program
The South Colonie Central School District has been honored with a $5,000 Best Practices Award in recognition of its innovative and creative use of government commodity foods as part of the school meal program. The award, sponsored by the state Office of General Services and the USDA, was presented to District Food Service Director Renee´ Hanks. full story
