The purpose of
this memo is to provide guidance for paid lunch pricing in Child Nutrition
Programs for the 2023-2024 school year. The Paid Lunch Equity (PLE) tool is
used to determine the weighted average price of a paid lunch prices for student
meals or the amount of non-federal funds that must be put into the non-profit
food service account. Under Section 752, the Consolidated Appropriations Act
for 2023 and SP 11-2023 , only a
School Food Authority (SFA) having a negative balance in the nonprofit school
food service account as of June 30, 2022, will be required to complete the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) PLE Tool. School districts with
a zero or positive balance are exempt from this requirement but need to retain
the APSCN Board Report for period 12 (June 2022) showing the balance.
All SFAs are encouraged to complete the PLE tool and establish a paid
lunch price for student meals as a future reference.
SFAs may use
the prices they last charged students as the basis for their SY 2023-2024 paid
lunch price calculation, even if those prices were charged during a year the
SFA was not required to comply with PLE requirements. For example, SFAs that
received flexibility under the PLE waiver during SY 2022-20231 or that were
exempt based on the FY 2022 Appropriations Act may use prices charged during SY
2022-2023 to determine their PLE requirement for SY 2023-2024.
SFAs that did
not charge for meals during SY 2022-2023, such as an SFA that operated under a
special provision and is returning to standard counting and claiming in SY
2023-2024, may use the most recent paid lunch price data as the basis for its
SY 2023-2024 paid lunch calculation. If an SFA is unable to find documentation
of the last paid meal price charged to students, then it must follow Paid Lunch Equity Guidance.
SFAs are not
required to raise their paid lunch price by more than 10 cents for SY 2023-2024
from the last year they charged for paid lunches. SFAs can still choose to
raise the price by more than 10 cents.
All SFAs are required to complete the attached form and those districts
who had a negative balance as of June 30, 2022, must also complete and send in a
copy of the completed PLE tool to ADE.CNU-A-PS@ade.arkansas.gov by Friday,
May 19, 2023.
If you have any questions, please contact your Area Specialist at
501-324-9502.