Vermont’s new Universal School Meals law means all students can eat breakfast and lunch for free. This will have a huge impact in making sure no Vermont child goes without healthy food.

But we need your help. Together, we can reduce the cost of Universal School Meals for Vermont taxpayers and help our schools access millions in federal education dollars. Please fill out the form your school has provided (or download the form here) to collect income information for your household.

Even if you didn’t fill out these forms in the past, doing so now will help make Universal School Meals affordable for Vermont and allow schools to access millions in additional federal funding.

By filling out the form you:

• Help our [school/schools] access millions of critical federal dollars for education.
• Help provide students in our district and across Vermont with healthy, nutritious food.
• Help keep education taxes from going up in our community.

What happens when you fill out the form?

When you fill out the form, the information will be used to:

• Maximize the federal dollars Vermont receives for education and determine how to divide up those dollars fairly among Vermont schools.
• Get federal money to pay for school meals, so the Vermont taxpayer contribution is lower.
• Reduce the cost of universal meals for Vermont taxpayers.

The privacy of your household financial information is protected by law. Filling out the form only takes a few minutes, and it will help your community, your school, and your tax bill.

View and download Form here.

View Instructions here.

As an alternative (and to save you time!) you may apply online at MyMealTime.com.

Steps to Apply online at MyMealTime.com:

1. Create a MyMealTime account here.

2. After setting up your My MealTime account, you can go here to apply for Free or Reduced Lunch status. (Use the same username/password you created for MyMealTime.com)

3. As you fill out the application, please use these instructions to assist. You only need to submit one application per household, even if your children attend more than one school in OSSU. The application must be filled out completely to certify your children for free or reduced price school meals.

Please follow the instructions in order! Each step of the instructions is the same as the steps on your application. If at any time you are not sure what to do next, please contact Val Hussey, 802-472-6531 or vhussey@ossu.org.

Meals that power our students for learning.

Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union and its schools pride themselves on offering quality nutritional meals to our students at each school as participants in a number of federal school meals programs.

We partner with local food growers and makers such as Center for an Agricultural Economy, Burtt's Orchard, and Jasper Hill Farm to create community connections and emphasize fresh, quality ingredients on appealing menus. OSSU's Food Service staff is committed to providing tasty meals that power our youth for learning in and outside of the classroom. For information on menus, please use the quick links on this page to each school's website.

Remember:

Each free meal consists of USDA approved components that are nutritionally balanced. Students have choices, but the meal must remain nutritionally balanced to qualify as free. Therefore, students must choose a minimum of 3 of the 5 components offered for the meal to remain free.

Students who choose items a la carte (items chosen apart from the multi-component meal, or as a supplement to a meal brought from home) will need to pay for those a la carte items, even if the student has free meal status. One carton of milk is considered part of the free meal for 2022-2023. and there will be no a la carte charge. Additional cartons of milk will be charged at 50 cents each.

Example A: A student chooses only a slice of pizza. The student would need to choose the slice of pizza AND the other nutritionally balanced components, or the student will be charged for the a la carte slice of pizza.

Example B: A student comes to school with a meal from home and chooses an a la carte piece of fruit at school. The piece of fruit, as it is not part of a school-provided nutritionally balanced meal, will be charged to the student.