Dear Parents or Guardians,
Welcome to Coventry Public Schools!
We’re so pleased to have your child in our school community. Along with a great education, we’re proud to provide healthy and delicious meals each day to support their learning and growth.
Breakfast and lunch are offered daily at every school. Students can choose from hot and cold entrées, fresh fruits, vegetables, juice, and milk. To make a complete meal, students must select at least three items, including one fruit or vegetable. A variety of à la carte healthy food Smart snacks—such as baked chips, water, juice, and ice cream—are also available for purchase. Snacks can be purchased with cash or must have a positive account balance. Milk is included with meals or may be purchased separately for $0.75.
School year 26-27 - Breakfast for all at NO COST, reduced eligibility students have no cost for lunch.
MEAL ACCOUNTS ON SCHOOL CAFE
To make meal payments simple, we offer the free School Café Family Hub Mobile app and website (family.schoolcafe.com). With School Café, you can:
Add money instantly to your child’s account
View purchases and set spending limits
Receive low-balance alerts
Transfer funds between students
Cash and checks are always accepted as well, remaining change is automatically added to the student’s account.
Hale Early Education Center – Your Student is listed under Captain Nathan Hale school in School Café.
Students will enter their student ID number to purchase meals. PLEASE HAVE YOUR STUDENT MEMORIZE THEIR ID NUMBER. We are proud of the quality Food Service Program at Coventry Public Schools and are committed to keeping every student nourished, happy, and ready to learn. If you have any questions, please reach out at Chaines@coventryct.org, dgarfield@coventryct.org, or 860-742-4535, mobile Director Courtney Haines 860-576-1497.
We encourage filling out 2026-2027 Free & Reduced applications, they can be sent to us throughout the school year to be processed.
For those that qualified in school year 25-26, new applications need to be filled out each year before Oct. 7th. Roll-over benefits end 30 days into the school year.
Links to important documents:
We encourage filling out 2026-2027 Free & Reduced applications, they can be sent to us throughout the school year.
For those that qualified in school year 25-26, new applications need to be filled out each year before Oct. 7th.
Food Services Charging Policy for Coventry
What's Changing?
The School Nutrition Department is committed to providing efficient service while maintaining accurate accounting of all student meal funds. Beginning school year 2026-2027, our cafeterias will implement a new cash-handling procedure.
Our cafeteria registers will no longer keep cash on hand to make change. If a student pays with cash and the amount provided is more than the cost of the meal or purchase, the remaining balance (change) will be credited directly to the student's SchoolCafe meal account instead of being returned as cash.
For example:
Meal purchase: $3.35
Student pays: $5.00
Remaining balance: $1.65
$1.65 will be added to the student's SchoolCafe account and can be used toward future school meal or approved cafeteria purchases.
Why Are We Making This Change?
This new procedure will:
Improve the security and accountability of cafeteria funds.
Reduce cash handling and the risk of cash shortages or errors.
Speed up service at the checkout line.
Ensure that any remaining funds stay safely on your child's meal account for future purchases.
Families are encouraged to send exact cash whenever possible or to make deposits into their child's SchoolCafe account online.
If your child does not have a SchoolCafe account or if you have questions about this new procedure, please contact the School Nutrition Office at Food Service Director, Courtney Haines, email: chaines@coventryct.org Phone: 860-742-4535.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support as we work to provide safe, efficient, and high-quality meal service to our students.
Sign up on:
Website: Family.schoolcafe.com
Mobile App: SchoolCafe Family Hub
Make sure your student knows their ID number, entered at point of sale to receive meals and purchases.
Sincerely,
Courtney Haines
Service Director, Coventry & Andover Public Schools