Children need healthy meals to learn.
Northwest Public Schools offers healthy meals every school day.  

Please note: School lunches are no-longer free.  Lunches will be charged as noted below for the 2022-2023 school year.  If you would like information on free or reduced meals, please see information/application below.

Lunch price 
$3.00 — K-5th Grade
$3.20 — 6th-12th Grade
$4.25 — Adult
Extras
Milk — $.50
Extra Fruit/Vegetable — $.75
Entree — $1.90

Charging meals is not allowed; please insure that your student has adequate funds to cover meal purchases and/or ala carte items.  Please see below for lunch account information.

Meal Service and Requirements

The USDA requires that all schools participating in the food program follow guidelines for types and amounts of foods offered. Students are required by federal regulation to select either a minimum of 1/2 cup fruit or vegetable for a meal to be considered reimbursable.

The district uses a computerized meal system to record and deduct payments for meals. Each student has a lunch I.D. number to use in the lunch line for this purpose.

Robyn Wright, Food Service Manager (rwright@ginorthwest.org)
Please contact Robyn about food service questions including special dietary needs.

What Makes a Complete Lunch?

Choices from the five food groups–bread/grain, meat/protein, fruit, vegetable, & milk–are offered at each meal. At a minimum, students must take a serving from three different food groups, one serving being a 1/2 cup fruit or vegetable.

Free and Reduced Lunch Application

Free & reduced meal applications may be submitted at any time during the school year but eligibility does not apply until the application is approved.  Applications can be picked up at the district office, at each school office or you may apply online.  To apply online you will need to have a Wordware lunch balance account.  Please contact the district office at 308-385-6398 to obtain a family key and set up a Wordware account if you do not have one.  The link to fill out the online application is on the Northwest website (ginorthwest.org).  Click on Parents – Lunch – Online F-R Application.  Previous eligibility will carry over to September 25, 2022.  At that time, students will revert to paid status until a current Free & Reduced application has been received and approved.

Please contact Taren about questions regarding free/reduced applications, results and lunch account information. Taren Baxter – Lunch Program Bookkeeper (tbaxter@ginorthwest.org)

Balance Notification

Each family account will receive a weekly email with the lunch balance information on Sundays from the Wordware program.

Low Balance Notifications

The Wordware program will begin to notify families of a low lunch balance by phone call and email on Wednesdays.  A low balance lunch account is identified at $5.00 or below.

Payment Options

Each family has a Family I.D. and each student has a Student I.D. to connect them to the family account. If you need these numbers you can find them on your Wordware lunch balance account site or contact Chelsie (cvanbuskirk@ginorthwest.org) or Taren (tbaxter@ginorthwest.org).

Cash or check may be sent to your school office or the district office. Charging is not allowed; please see Board Policy #3571.

Automatic deposits may be set up by using the Debit Authorization Form 2022-23 available on the website or by calling 308-385-6398. You can have money deducted from a checking or savings account on the 1st of the month, the 15th of the month, or both.  There are no transaction service fees to patrons using this method.

E-Fund payments can be made online via the Northwest website (www.ginorthwest.org). Transaction service fees are charged to patrons.  Payment must be made by 9am in order to posted to that day’s lunch balance.

Please contact Chelsie with questions regarding lunch account payments, ACH and/or EFunds options. Chelsie Van Buskirk – Lunch Receipts (cvanbuskirk@ginorthwest.org)

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions; we will be happy to assist you!