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Note: If a student misses a meal due to sickness, or an unplanned missed school day, no refund or credit is available. This is the same policy as the school has for tuition. 

The school is aware of student absences and will use the meal for another child if needed.  

Policy is...                                                

• Confirmed at time of enrollment
• Summarized in Terms of Service
• Displayed on Helpful Hints
• Confirmed at Checkout

• LunchDirect orders are NON-REFUNDABLE and non-transferable. Orders can be cancelled and a credit placed into the parent account for automatic use on a future purchase. 
• The cancel meal function is self-administered by the parent before the weekly cut-off. Just select the order calendar for the student, and the day to cancel. It will ask to verify the cancellation, select yes.
• Schools can also cancel meals giving credits for anyone that has pre-ordered by date or classroom. This will block anyone from ordering that were included,
  • Examples-  Holidays, Closures, Field Trips, Teacher conference, Covid, etc
• Credits are an internal accounting method for meal cancellations. Credits have no cash value. Credits are displayed when checking out. They are a method of cancelling an order, cost-effectively. You can also find how many credits you have by going to the bottom of your Account page.
• The credit system has been used for over a decade and has allowed parents to change delivery dates and handle special situations while ensuring children get their meals.

• Visa
• Master Card
• American Express
• Discover

Credit Card processing is handled by Elavon and InternetSecure. LunchDirect does not retain any credit card information.

ExtendedOrderingTM is the result of a significant development effort based on parent and school input. It has helped address situations where parents were not able to order by the weekly cut-off day. It has been labeled “late orders” in the past.

This feature is intended to support situations where a parent simply forgets to order until shortly after the weekly cut-off, or has systems issues (allowing them time to resolve the issue or place the order at school).

ExtendedOrdering is conditioned on the caterer’s ability (most caterers can allow a 24 hour extension). The days available for late ordering are highlighted on the order calendar for the following week. A nominal ExtendedOrderingTM service charge (typically $5.00 per order) is added to the order total for checkout.

The normal weekly cut-off allows the caterer to plan and order for the following week. ExtendedOrdering is designed to provide time to “slightly adjust” the food order with suppliers.

The school Weekly Detail by Classroom student distribution report will be printed on Monday, as all changes will then be reflected.

Changes to the following week’s orders cannot be processed once the extension has expired... At that point our last order is sent to the caterer for processing and our financial books are closed and payment is made.

Note: 

• If ExtendedOrdering is available, the monthly order calendar will designate the extended order deadline day with a circle around the date , and a notation at the bottom part of the day in color
• The days available for ordering that next week are also color coded as ExtendedOrder days
• Only one charge is incurred per late order regardless of the number of days processed.
• We encourage monthly ordering at time of menu publication to avoid needing to use the ExtendedOrder function.
• Although Lunch Direct sends out reminder emails at the end of the month we recommend putting a reminder in your personal calendar, numerous technical things can keep the reminder from being delivered. Many of our parents have found these two tips helpful in avoiding a disruption in lunch delivery.

It can support all private school grade levels with classroom or cafeteria delivery. It can handle parent ordering, or school ordering; or a blend of both. It allows parents to set themselves up for ordering using a school code. A local caterer is assigned to support each school. If a school has a caterer and would like to have Lunch Direct use that caterer for ordering and delivery, that can be accommodated. Depending on the school needs, meals can be provided in bulk or individually. A weekly distribution report can be printed on Monday by the school each week, showing by classroom who ordered and what they ordered for distribution.

The technical description of Lunch Direct would describe it is a Data Base driven, Object oriented, real time system. There is method to the madness but things do not happen in a sequence. It is built to be user friendly and FAST. Many things can be happening at the same time. But the system is ensuring hot nutritious meals are delivered to the children, on time. The policies and practices ensure the system supports all of the "players" in a consistent predetermined manner. It all starts with the order. The order represents a commitment; a commitment to the parent, the school, and to the caterer

Parents order lunches for their child on-line using color coded menus to select from, and pays on-line with a credit card. Lunch Direct initiates caterer payment with a message to the caterer indicating by day how many meals will be delivered. Meals for the week are paid for by week end. The parent has complete control over the orders, deletions, and changes that are allowed. Service cannot override things like order deadlines. If it is possible, it can be done by the parent using the system.

Lunch Direct sends the caterer a weekly order sheet for each school, showing how may meals to prepare for each menu type the caterer published. The caterer decides when the weekly cut off is set to allow time to purchase, prepare and deliver the food for the following week. Lunch Direct provides a late cut off with the caterer, again considering the time necessary to meet the order. A nominal late fee is available if the caterer can accommodate a late order.

The school is responsible for printing the weekly distribution report which provides the total of meals ordered for each menu type. Each day the school validates the correct number of meals were delivered at the correct temperature. The school then arranges to distribute the meals to the correct classroom and child. Number of meals should be reconciled at time of delivery.

An order is a promise the meal will be delivered each day as ordered. Making sure the children have food. If the parent deletes a meal, a credit is applied to their family account, to be used on the next order. They do not lose the value of the meals. This keeps the cost down as credit costs and system expenses are not incurred again.

The system and policies integrate the ordering, preparation, distribution, and payment processes. The agreement with our caterers is reflected in the Lunch Direct systems and policies. The system will not allow exceptions as the programs and processes are tightly integrated to meet the committed deadlines. This also reflects low costs based on efficiency. Service cannot provide exceptions as it disrupts the flow of the processes. Many of the system functions run automatically, some overnight (note: service cannot accommodate individual change requests, as it does not have access to all components of the process).

The life of an order....

• Caterer publishes menus.
• Parent signs up for service, agrees to policies that support the system.
• Parent orders child’s lunches. Cancelations follow the ordering schedule.
• Lunch Direct orders next week’s lunches from the caterer. This starts the integrated payment processes to ensure the caterer is paid per agreement.
• Caterer orders next week’s food.
• Caterer can look ahead to future orders to anticipate product needs.
• Lunch Direct updates next week’s lunches for Caterer to make minor adjustments in purchasing and production. Lunch Direct Initiates caterer payment, including late orders.
• School prints weekly lunch distribution report.
• Caterer prepares meals fresh each day based on the order report.
• Caterer delivers meals fresh each day.
• School verifies the lunch counts and temperatures each day.
• School distributes meals each day using the weekly distribution report; The school is notified to reprint the weekly distribution report if there was a late order.
• Note: a parent can delete a meal following the weekly cut-off deadline rules, and receive credits; credits have no value, but can be used to purchase future lunches; the no-refund policy includes credits. Credits are automatically used first to pay for future orders.

The question has come up regarding meals, or credits, and the no refund policy. Enrolling the school and the parent/child in Lunch Direct constitutes use of the system. Services are set up on the ordering system and the payment system to support the processes. The meal pricing covers the set up of the school, parent and school support, operational expenses to administrate system operations and payments, Systems expenses including the auto fill subsystem provided by Elevon. The system is designed to support the order processing and meal delivery schedules. It is specifically built to meet order commitments and support the operational components.

• No financial data are retained on our Lunch Direct hosting server;
• Transactions are processed using a secure connection
• Our Merchant Account handling credit card processing is Elavon/InternetSecure a leading worldwide provider.
• InternetSecure handles the actual interface, and manages the security of the parent financial data.
• They provide a “token” system which allows completing sensitive information during the checkout process.

This is after careful menu preparation, food vendor ingredient availability verification and ordering, and internal Chef Quality Assurance.

In some cases the caterer may miss the menu publication schedule. If it is not available when you go to order, please allow a couple of days for their process to complete and actually publish the menu.

When they have completed loading the menus they will send and email to the parents letting them know it is available.

• Secure encrypted transaction processing
• Credit Card Convenience… Master Card credit or debit; Visa credit or debit; Discover; or American Express
• Secure sign-in with personal User ID and Password
• Auto-Fill to simplify and speed credit card processing
• Simple, friendly, color-coded calendar-menu for ordering, or review (order by Monday, one week in advance)
• Automatic sack lunch with juice assigned on class field trip days
• Regular or Vegetarian daily meal option for student each day
• On-line order detail history
• Paid-day user delete function with automatic credit to account (delete by Monday, one week in advance)
• Convenient ordering from Home, Office… or anywhere using a browser
• Join and order during the month, one week in advance
• Delicious, nutritious, hot, daily catered meals
• Easily change ordered meals, one week in advance
• Easily delete ordered meals, one week in advance, and receive a family credit
• Calendar menu color coded as available, selected, or ordered
• Order confirmation at completion of payment processing
• Automatic user password reset for forgotten password
• Parent ordering and payment for their child or Product Ordering and payment by school for the school; or a "blend of both
• Lunch DIrect just upgraded its software to be more intuitive and able to run on a number of devices, including iPhones of tablets.

Simple and flexible.

Lunch Direct does send out monthly reminders to assist parents in ordering their child's lunches. This is intended to be a backup service.

Emails are not always delivered to their recipients, for many different technology reasons (spam, hosting problems, internet area blockages, internet email handling, etc.). Lunch Direct has a high volume email service.

We hope that you are enjoying our service. We appreciate your patronage.

Question: What is the email stating that I owe for an Express Lunch for my child referring to?

• Your child did not have a lunch ordered, did not have a meal from home, and elected to get a express meal on credit.

Lunch Direct is an on-line lunch ordering solution. Those are prepaid meals.

• The lunches are paid for at checkout with a credit card.

If the child does not have a meal ordered, and fails to bring a lunch, they can purchase an "ExressLunch" on credit.

• That ExressLunch order is entered into Lunch Direct as an ExpressLunch! by the Sami's cafeteria on-site server.
• Lunch Direct notifies the parent their child has charged a lunch, and provides a link for the parent to reconcile the charge
• The Lunch Direct parent record has a history log showing all lunches ordered, and paid for.

Questions regarding an ExpressLunch should be directed to the on-site catering manager, or by email to samibanerjee@gmail.com.

Children with life-threatening allergies are strongly encouraged not to participate in Lunch Direct’s meal program. Parents of children with life-threatening food allergies are encouraged to pack a lunch from home.

Lunch Direct will publish menu allergens if it is provided by the caterer,based on their menu. That informaiton will be available using the short list of menu options in the upper right portion of the ordering menu. Lunch Direct provides a generic alllergen summary sheet in the menu if one is not available from the caterer.

Manufacturers may change their formulations without notice or caterers may need to make substitutions. In addition, there may be different ingredients that may be from the same food family such as milk, whey, casseine, or soy or soy protein and some children may be allergic to all, none, or a combination of the different variations of these ingredients. These varying forms of the ingredients generally have not been researched for this list. In general, this list includes sample foods from our menus, and not in the numerous other possible forms in which these ingredients may occur

LunchDirect does not provide refunds. This includes unused lunches, or credits. Paid meals can be deleted before the cutoff day and be credited to the parent account as CREDITS for future use.

Note: If a student misses a meal due to sickness, or an unplanned missed school day, no refund or credit is available. This is the same policy as the school has for tuition. The school is aware of student absences and can use their cancelled meals for another child.  

The No Refund Policy is...                                                

• Confirmed at time of enrollment
• Summarized in Terms of Service
• Displayed on Helpful Hints
• Confirmed at Checkout

                                                CREDITS REFUND POLICY ADJUSTMENT

Lunch Direct has a no-refund policy. It has served its purpose for over 15 years. It is now adjusting the policy for selective caterers and schools.

To receive a CREDIT REFUND EXCEPTION the CATERER and SCHOOL must be certified to participate; based on their policies, practices and systems.

CREDITS have no cash value. They are a short-term, internal accounting method for handling meal cancellations. CREDITS are awarded when meals are cancelled, and used automatically [at full value] when purchasing future meals. A parent can elect to refund their credits, with a ten percent refund service fee.

To refund parent CREDITS>

1. the school must be active,
2. the parent must sign into their account
3. select the Account menu option
4. pan down to their Account Credits and select the Refund Request button
5. for selective caterers, the refund amount will be shown, followed by an entry area for the credit Card Number, and expiration date of the card to credit, plus a brief refund reason
6. select the Submit refund request button for processing [note: please allow 7 to 10 days to be reflected on your account]. (If there is no refund request button, the function is not avaiable. Exceptions are not allowed.)

Thank you for being a valued customer.

• And, you will need to register at the new school, using the Registration number for that NEW School. That includes your children, and classrooms.
• You will need to use a different email address and user name (you may need to set one up using Google, etc.)
• That will be your new portal for ordering Lunch Direct lunches at the new school.

We look forward to continuing to serving you at the new school.

Please contact the school if more information is needed. They are responsible for a} meal receipt verification and b} student distribution.