PROGRAMS & SERVICES:
CHILD NUTRITION:
SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMS:
FREE & REDUCED PRICE MEAL PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION
(Updated 2/27/13)

Unless a school provides meals to all students at no charge, schools must permit families to apply for free and reduced price meals. Schools must designate an Approving Officer to review and approve applications. Schools must also conduct verification of a sample of approved applications each year.

Current School Meal Free/Reduced Application
School Year 2012-2013 forms are available for printing. The pages are designed to be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper; the meal and milk applications must be printed on white paper. Some pages may be printed front to back. You will need to identify benefits that your school offers such as breakfast and afterschool snacks. The [bold bracketed fields] indicate where you need to insert your school specific data and information.

Required information that must be provided to households includes the letter to households, meal or milk application, the Notice of Direct Certification, and the Notice to Households of Approval/Denial of Benefits. Please see the Vermont Appendix for a complete timeline of activities.

• Applications in Languages other than English OSL
• Meal Application for 2012-2013 PDF
  • Meal Notice to Households WORD
• Milk Application for 2012-2013 PDF
  • Milk Notice to Households WORD
• Income Eligibility Guidelines PDF
• School Programs Reimbursement Rates for 2012-2013 PDF

Application Approval and Verification Manuals for 2012-2013
The Vermont Appendix contains a timeline of required activities, letter templates, forms and other tools used during application approval and verification.

• Vermont Appendix: Application Approval & Verification ProcessWORD

The USDA Eligibility Manual October 2011 version was developed by USDA and is more comprehensive than the state agency version, covering a wider variety of topics and issues.

• USDA Eligibility Manual OSL
  

Verification Online Reporting Tool
The Verification Online Reporting Tool allows one School Food Authority designee (one Supervisory Union designee) to calculate the School Food Authority’s number of applications to verify, and to complete and submit required Verification reports. Three reports are required: October 1 number to verify, November 3 number of applications and students, December 1 Verification results.

• Online Verification Reporting Tool OSL

Certification and Benefit Issuance Letters
These are letters that may be used by schools who are reviewed by Child Nutrition Programs and who must complete corrective action by contacting households to notify them of eligibility changes resulting from errors found during an Administrative or Program Review. These sample letters will save lots of time, will facilitate the corrective action process and may save fiscal action penalties for incorrect meal claiming errors by quicker corrective action response periods.

				Word	RTF
		Free to Reduced, Approval Error		Word	RTF
		Free to No Benefits, Approval Error		Word	RTF
		Reduced to Free, Approval Error		Word	RTF
		Reduced to No Benefits, Approval Error		Word	RTF
		Denied to Free or Reduced, Approval Error		Word	RTF
		No Application on File, Status Change		Word	RTF
		Zero income		Word	RTF
		Incomplete Application		Word	RTF
		Decreased Benefits, Miscategorized		Word	RTF
		Increased Benefits, Miscategorized		Word	RTF
		Student Continuing to Receive Benefits After No Response to Verification		Word	RTF

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