School District Answers Cafeteria Fund Questions

Hoping to clear up questions raised at recent school board meetings regarding the Fort Lee Public School District’s cafeteria fund and the accounting procedures that go along with it, Business Administrator and Board Secretary Cheryl Balletto presented a list of frequently asked questions and provided some answers at the ’s regular business meeting Monday.

Acting Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle said he asked Balletto to compile the FAQ “about what our cafeteria accounting procedures are, and how these situations work within our school district.”

Below are the contents of the FAQ document distributed Monday with additional comments from Balletto:

Question: I pay money for my child to buy lunch. Where does that money go?

Answer: The monies get deposited into the cafeteria fund account. The money collected for school lunch is then used to pay for expenses directly related to serving lunch.

“All of the monies that we collect for breakfast or lunch at the schools get deposited into the cafeteria bank account,” Balletto said. “Those monies are held in there, and they pay for the expenses that coincide with serving the lunch and breakfast.”

Question: What is the cafeteria fund account?

Answer: The cafeteria fund account is a separate bank account, which records all deposits and disbursements relating to the lunch and breakfast program throughout the Fort Lee Public School District.

“By law, we must have a separate bank account so the funds are not co-mingled with other school funds,” Balletto added.

Question: What monies are deposited in the cafeteria fund account?

Answer: By law, all monies collected for the sales of lunch, breakfast, drinks and snacks must be deposited in the cafeteria fund account. The district receives monthly reimbursements from the federal and state government that are deposited into the separate bank account.

Balletto said, “If we get checks or money orders or through the “Pay for It” system some parents are utilizing, that money goes into that account, along with what we get in reimbursements from the state and federal government on a monthly basis.”

She added, “Then what we do is we pay expenses from that account, again related to the food service program.”

Question: What are the expenses paid from the cafeteria fund account?

Answer: After board approval for payment, checks are written for management services (which include the purchasing of food/beverage items, labor costs, paper products, and management fees.) The district also utilizes funds for repairs for equipment, maintenance for a computerized point of sale system and updated equipment.

Among those expenses are fees paid to Chartwells, the school district’s food service management provider, Balletto said, including management expenses, labor costs and the cost of buying food and drinks.

Question: If monies are leftover at the end of the year, where does it go?

Answer: If monies are leftover, they remain in retained earnings. Those monies are then utilized at a future time for updating equipment. Over the last few years, new cafeteria tables have been purchased and all schools now have the POS computerized system.

In other words, Balletto said, “It stays in that bank account.”

“For those who know corporate accounting, it’s treated as a corporate fund,” she said. “And then, those monies may build up over time, and then when items come up that need to be purchased, that’s what we use.”

Balletto highlighted the purchase of the new lunch tables, which she said was done in phases a couple of years ago.

“The cafeteria tables were very nice,” she said. “No more duct tape, and you remember those horror stories.”

Other examples, which Balletto described as “not fun things,” included purchases of needed equipment such as a meat slicer.

Question: How does a district select a food service provider?

Answer: By law, every school district must contact each food service management company that services the district’s area of New Jersey. In writing, each company will either send in a bid or a letter not wishing to participate. Chartwells was the only vendor who wished to submit a proposal.

Balletto said the list of possible vendors that do business in the area is provided by the Department of Agriculture.

“Chartwells was the only vendor who wished to respond,” Balletto reiterated. “All other vendors sent me letters saying we’re either too busy or we just don’t wish to submit a proposal.”

BOE member Peter Suh raised the issue of the National School Lunch Program and how that factors into the cafeteria fund.

Balletto said the first step is for parents to submit applications.

“So when we get lunch applications back, my office is responsible for checking them to make sure children qualify for a free or reduced lunch, or they get denied,” she said. “We then enter that into PowerSchool.”

Using herself as an example of a student who gets a free lunch, she explained the process.

“When I go to buy lunch, I’m in the computer system as a free student, so the Chartwells cafeteria aide who does the register will know, Cheryl’s free,” Balletto said. “At the end of every day, the computer tallies how many free lunches you’ve served, reduced and paid. And then on a monthly basis, we have to submit those numbers to the state and federal government. They then in return reimburse you a price per meal for a paid student, for a reduced and for a free student.”

She added that it’s not a 100 percent reimbursement, but that “nothing comes out of the general fund budget.”

“You would need a separate budget line, which our district does not have,” Balletto said.