Krishay Vanga, junior, said he frequently buys lunch from the cafeteria.
“I usually bring lunch from home, but I also get hungry, so I buy the school lunches,” Vanga said.
While he tends to like the food served by the cafeteria, Vanga said the fees charged for depositing lunch account money are an inconvenience.
MySchoolBucks increased the program fee for meal account payments from $2.75 to $3.25 on Thursday, March 7, citing “rising payment processing interchange fees and increased operational costs” in the email to account holders.
The district has a service agreement with Nutrikids and MySchoolBucks, which Heartland Payment Systems owns.
Nutrikids is a money and meal count system that manages the prepayment process and meal eligibility, and MySchoolBucks is an online payment collection system that allows parents and guardians to view account information and manage payments, according to Heartland Payment Systems.
Carmen Fischer, director of child nutrition services, oversees the food service program throughout the district. The main benefit of the service agreement with MySchoolBucks, Fischer said, is that families can make meal account payments online with a credit card.
“Banks are charging more for credit card transactions, and MySchoolBucks is passing that along to the consumers,” Fischer said.
Fischer said there are other options for families who would like to avoid the extra fees.
“Parents don’t have to use MySchoolBucks to make deposits into their meal accounts,” Fischer said. “It’s just a convenience that we set up for families that do want to use credit cards; we certainly will take cash or check.”
MySchoolBucks customer service representative, Angelo, who declined to provide his last name, said many parents were initially confused with the email they received explaining the fee increase.
“They thought that every time the student would make a purchase, there would be a fee,” Angelo said. “We clarified the information to the parents. The program fee will only apply every time they put funds into the account.”
If a parent would like to deposit funds using a checking account instead of a credit card, the fee will remain at $2.75, Angelo said.
Melissa Vendt, School Store volunteer, said her students usually bring lunch from home, aside from purchasing snacks and drinks in the cafeteria line.
“I don’t know that they like the food offered,” Vendt said.
When MySchoolBucks increased fees for lunch account payments, Vendt said she began depositing larger amounts less frequently. It wasn’t a difficult change, but Vendt said she sees how the fees could be challenging for some families.
“This could mean that people will put less money in their MySchoolBucks account,” Vendt said.
And that might lead to more students buying food from the School Store, she said.
