Don't buy that cookie Moms can tell what school kids buy at lunch

New online

program lets

parents pay

by credit card

By BECKY BROOKS

Enterprise Editor

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

Parents wanting an optional way to pay for school lunches can now charge lunches for their children online using a credit card.

Vicki Nieset, food services director for the Clyde-Green Springs school district, said that parents started signing up for the PayForIt.net plan even before letters were sent home with the students.

The program went into effect on April 21 to allow parents to put money on a school lunch account for their child through the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Parents must have their student's identification number to set up an online account.

"Sixty-six parents have signed up," she said. "I would guess 50 children have money on their accounts."

Nieset said the district added the online credit card services for several reasons.

"It's going to a paperless world," she pointed out, but added that was not the main reason for the new credit card option service.

"We have had lots of parents' requests," she explained. The district cafeterias now allow children to pay cash at the lunch line or turn in checks for their accounts. Nieset said those options are still available.

But the new PayForIt.net system offers not only the ability to add funds to a lunch account, it also allows a parent to check up on what their child is spending funds upon.

"I feel like the biggest tattle tail in the world , but parents have the right to know," Nieset explained. The listing is called a "patronage report".

"Some are finding out their children are eating breakfast at school, which they are not aware of," the food service director commented.

The same report had been available in the past through the food services department for each child, but now the parents can have it generated online themselves.

"We used to run a pdf file and send it to them," Nieset said about a child's detailed lunch expenditure report. "This will save us a lot of work."

On the patronage report, parents will be able to see if a child has paid for a Type A lunch, extra milk or individual items by price, she said.

The new system has another option - if parents agree to it.

In the case of separate parents - each can create an account through PayForIt.net for their child to check on the child's lunch spending and to apply credit to the youth's account.

"Grandparents can set up an account for a kids, but they need a student ID number," she pointed out, noting some family members like to help out.

For more information on the program call 419-547-9659.