Lockport City School District offers parents a new way to pay for their child's lunch

Parents in the Lockport City School District now have a new way to pay for student lunches.

In July, due to changes made by President Barack Obama and the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, the district had to re-bid their contract for their food service provider. The bid was awarded to Aramark Education.

With this switch, parents will now have the option to prepay for meals using MyPayments Plus.

Students have been assigned an identification number that will stay with them until they graduate. When they go to purchase a meal, the child will enter the number, like they would at an ATM.

Parents can sign in to the program at www.mypaymentsplus.com and access their students account.

MyPayments Plus will give parents the option to add money on to their child’s account, see what items their child has purchased and allot money they can only use on certain items.

According to Aramark, this will give parents better control over what their children are purchasing, it will allow them to put money on their account for future meals and gives an option to parents if their child forgets their lunch money.

“The system is in ‘real time,’ which means a parent can add money to their child’s account and within 15 minutes the new balance will be in the child’s school lunch account,” said Assistant Superintendent of Finance Deborah Coder. “Parents can designate what the money is to be used for such as lunch only or even limit the purchase of a la carte items.”

The system can also notify the parent when the balance drops below a selected amount.

MyPayments Plus is available at all schools in the district and children will still have the option to pay for food items with cash.

Parents can also add money to their child’s account by filling out an envelope with the payment inside. Children can drop of the envelope with the school cashier and money will be added to their account. Money can also be mailed to the food service office, 130 Beattie Ave.

Or they can make payments or check balances via phone at 866-533-0149.

Visit www.lockportschools.org for more information about MyPayments Plus, menus and other food service options at the district.

For questions, parent can contact the support line at 877-237-0946.