Three ways to purchase meals

1.) Checks: Make checks payable to (Your School) Child Nutrition and bring the check to the cafeteria. It is preferable to bring checks to deposit into student accounts during breakfast. Include the student’s name and ID number on the check.

2.) Pre-payments online: To pay online, have your student’s ID number ready and go to www. SchoolCafe.com. The service is easy to use, convenient, private, and secure. Parents can view/print student purchase history, account balance, and pay for multiple students by credit or debit card in a single transaction. There is a 5% convenience fee per transaction and a minimum payment amount of $20 for any transaction. Payments post within 24 hours to student accounts, and the service is available 24/7. Parents can also register to receive low balance email reminders.

3.) Cash: Cash may be brought to any cafeteria in the district for deposit to any student’s account, or students may pay with cash on a daily basis.

Apply Online!

Springdale Schools participates in the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program, funded by USDA. Your child may be eligible for free or reduced-price meals based on your income or your eligibility for SNAP benefits. Apply online at schoolcafe.com or upload the School Cafe app to your smart phone.

School Meal Charging Procedures

Parents/gaurdians are encouraged to pay for student meals in advance.  Springdale Schools offers parents the ability to deposit funds for cafeteria meals in student accounts in advance several different ways:

  1. Each cafeteria has a locked box where students can place an envelope with cash or check sealed inside and their name written on the outside. 

  2. Advance meal payments may be made by using a debit or credit card through the School Café website at www.schoolcafe.com/SPRINGDALEPS.

  3. Payments are also accepted by the cashier during meal times.  As students purchase meals, the charges are debited from the meal account.

Students are allowed to charge on meal accounts. Purchases of ala carte (extra items not included in the meal) may not be charged to a student’s account if there are not sufficient funds to cover the item being purchased. The Parent-Link student calling system will call a student’s home nightly when there are any negative charges on the meal account, until all charges are paid in full. Payment plans may be set up by contacting the district’s Child Nutrition Office at (479) 750-8707. We hope you will partner with us by keeping your child’s meal account current.

For families who, due to economic issues, are unable to pay for school meals, Springdale Schools participates in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, which allow eligible students to receive free or reduced-price meals. Applications are available at your school office and are accepted online through the School Café website at www.schoolcafe.com/SPRINGDALEPS. However, students applying for free or reduced priced meals are required to pay for meals in full until the free and reduced meal application is processed. Our school district does not receive any federal or state funds outside of the National School Lunch Program to pay for student meals and our Child Nutrition department, according to federal law, cannot be financially responsible for meals that are unpaid. We must receive payment for meals either from the student being eligible for free and reduced priced meals or from the parent/guardian.