Hot Lunch

Full-day preschool students will either preorder their sack lunches for the entire week or parents will order when checking their child in for the day. Please check with your child's teacher for more information.

At the elementary and middle schools, students sign up for hot lunch at the beginning of the day in their classroom. At the serving line during lunch, they receive their selection.

At the high school cashier, students enter the last six digits of their Student ID on a pin pad to access their accounts. Student photos appear on the screen to prevent students from being misidentified.

*Students receiving free or reduced-price meals use the same procedure, and there is no indication on the screen that the student is receiving a free or reduced-price lunch.

Absolutely! Meal deposits may be sent to school with your student in an envelope. Please label the envelope with "Food Services" and include the student's first and last name, teacher's name, and school. Envelopes may be dropped off in the school office. At the High School, checks or cash may be accepted from 7:30–10:30 a.m. at the school office.

Checks payable to Grand Rapids Christian are accepted. Please include your student's first and last name on the check. A $10 fee will be assessed for all returned checks.

Yes. We have the ability to make family deposits. However, all student accounts are individual. Please indicate how much you want to be deposited into each student's account.

No. Due to the federally regulated child nutrition program, balances are not allowed to be transferred to other students' accounts.

We are happy to assist you in maintaining your student's account.

For elementary students, please contact the school and we will place you on a list to receive reminder slips to be sent home with your student. Once a week, an email is sent home if the account reaches a balance of $10 or less.

At the middle and high schools, cashiers make every effort to alert students when account balances are getting low. Students may also check their balances as they make their purchases.

Yes! You can call the Hot Lunch office at 616.574.5815 or by email jzondag@grcs.org Our priority is student service, so we may not be able to respond during lunch. We will return your message as soon as possible.

We cannot provide credit. However, we will allow a three-meal grace period if a student account is negative. Only a qualifying federal meal will be provided and the price will be deducted from the account. If we do not receive a deposit during the grace period the student will not be able to have hot lunch.  

High school students will not be able to charge à La Carte drinks and snacks.

Unfortunately, we do not refund hot lunch balances. However, we are happy to transfer funds between your children's accounts. All lunch balances are carried over to the following school year. We urge all families and senior year students to monitor their lunch balances beginning in April to avoid leaving an excess balance on their account.

There is no fee to register at grchristian.familyportal.cloud to access your child's account usage and balances.

The USDA regulates the school meal patterns and specifies the size of each portion. School lunches must include five components as determined by the federal regulations. The five lunch components include a meat/meat alternative, one serving of bread/grain, vegetable, fruit and fluid milk. School breakfasts must include a grain or meat/meat alternative, fruit, and fluid milk.

A meat alternative is a non-meat complete protein, such as eggs, cheese, yogurt, nuts or soybean products.

Offer versus Serve is a concept that was adopted by Congress in 1975 to permit students a choice in selecting the food they prefer and reducing food waste in schools. Under this concept, a student is offered all five meal components for lunch; but must choose at least three components with one of them being a fruit or vegetable serving to qualify for the hot lunch price or meal benefits. 

At least once every three years the Michigan Department of Education is required to conduct a nutrition review to determine that the school district is meeting the nutrition standards set by the USDA. Our menus are designed to meet or exceed the nutrient standards for calories, calcium, iron, Vitamin A & C, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and dietary fiber.

Provided by Meal Magic Corporation, the Family Portal is used in many school districts in Michigan and other states. It provides a safe, secure, and convenient way to make deposits to student meal accounts.

To view your student's account balance history or to make an online deposit, you must first set up an account.

Deposits can be made at any time and there is no need to indicate which days your student will be eating. You may make deposits online or send cash, or you can send a check or money order (made out to GRCS with Food service in the memo) to the school. Note: You will need your GRCS student account number (found on your student's ID card in ParentVUE) to set up your family portal account and deposit funds.