FAQs

Thanks to a Maine state law, school meals for all students are free, regardless of their family's income.

In Elementary Schools, we will serve the meal that was to be served on the storm day the next day. We try to get back onto the printed menu as soon as possible.

The Portland Public Schools cannot guarantee that a school or cafeteria is completely free of peanuts or tree nuts. Many commercially manufactured food products are now labeled with statements such as "Processed in a facility that contains peanuts or tree nuts." These products are common and they cannot be excluded from the menu. Please check with your school nurse for more information.

Sometimes foods we have ordered for that day’s menu do not arrive in time or are the wrong item. In these cases we must substitute menu items.

Great question! First off, we do conduct periodic taste tests in the cafeteria. These taste tests serve as a direct way for students to try potential new menu items and give immediate feedback. We do pay attention to the results from these tests, so please encourage your children to try the foods at the taste tests and vote!

As far as additional avenues for feedback, we are creating an online survey that will be open to both students and parents. This survey will allow you to give us feedback on existing menus as well as things you would like to see added or removed from the menu. 

Your friendly foodservice staff in the cafeteria is also the first line of contact for thoughts and ideas you have about school food. They work really hard to feed your children every day and take a lot of pride in what they do, so do not forget to give them a great big thank you to show your appreciation for all their hard work!

The food we serve meets the new USDA guidelines as determined by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, signed into law in 2010. This was the first major change to school food standards in over 15 years! These standards are designed to address obesity and encourage optimum nutrition for your children. 

Yes, the food we serve is healthy! Here are some reasons why:

• We provide multiple fresh fruit and vegetable options daily on the salad bar, to empower our kids to make healthy choices when selecting foods.
• All of the grains we serve are whole grains, (pizza crust, rolls, buns, pasta, rice, etc.).
• We always offer at least on vegetarian option.
• The meat we do serve is lean meat.
• We do not use trans fats, and limit the use of saturated fat.
• We limit the use of sodium.
• We only offer low and non-fat dairy products.
• We strive to offer as much fresh, Maine grown products as possible. As of April 2015 we served over 139,000 pounds of local foods during the 2015-2016 school year alone!
• Every Friday is Farm Fresh Friday, when multiple items are sourced from local farmers and fishermen.

We purchase food from a number of local and national distributors. We also source some foods directly from local farmers and fishermen as well as bakeries, and dairies. Approximately 36% of the foods served last school year were grown, caught, processed, or produced in Maine and neighboring New England states. We are hoping to increase that to 50% by next year.

You can access your student balance through your student's Infinite Campus Portal. There is a tab for meals that should be updated daily. 

Please contact your individual school for more information.

Students may buy an extra item with the new POS system. It will be deducted from their account. All students will need to have money in their account in order to do this. No student may charge an a la carte item.

Pork is not on a menu unless there are other choices that do not have pork as an ingredient.

You must to bring in a doctor’s note attesting to the fact and give it to the school nurse. The doctor must specify what the substitution should be: soy milk, rice milk, etc. There is only one soy milk approved as a substitution or Lactaid Milk. All other substitutions must be supplied by the parent or charged as an a la carte price.

The nurse will contact the Food Service Department and make arrangements for a substitution.

The Food Service Director designs the menus, using a computer program called “Nutrkids”which insures that the meals meet the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Under the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Grant through Healthy Portland, our Local Foods Manager is redesigning the menus for even more local foods and still meet our US Healthier Meals Challenge Silver or even Gold Award.