2024-2025 Food Information
Clean Label Initiative
TCAPS Food Service is part of the Michigan Great Lakes Consortium (GLC) which is the third largest school food consortium in the United States. The GLC has recently added clean label requirements to all of our commodity food bids that are sent out to prospective manufacturers and processors that are interested in supplying commodities to the consortium. This is the first stage of this process to ensure our children are receiving healthy clean label food each day in their school meals. Many of the manufacturers have already begun this process on their own but we want to be sure that every manufacturer and processor are working towards the same goals of providing clean label products to our Michigan school children. TCAPS has been a leader in these efforts. Per TCAPS district wellness plan, TCAPS Food Service has not served any food with food dyes or high fructose corn syrup in any of our TCAPS meals for the last 15 years.
Important Food Service Update
Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) proudly offers healthy and delicious breakfast and lunch meals to our students every school day in all of our buildings. Our children need these healthy meals to fuel their daily learning. This year, we are pleased to announce that all TCAPS students will receive free breakfast and lunch each school day, due to new State of Michigan legislation.
Even though all students will receive free meals, we kindly request that all TCAPS families complete the CEP Education Benefits form.
This request is critical as the information obtained from these applications allows TCAPS to apply for grants and state and federal funds for programs that support all students. These programs are essential to TCAPS ability to continue offering all students a world-class education.
Completing this application is vital to district funding. Please complete the application online at traversecity.familyportal.cloud. You can also print and deliver the application (found below) to your school or mail it to:
TCAPS Food Service
1180 Cass Road,
Traverse City, Michigan 49685
If you have additional questions, contact TCAPS Food and Nutrition Services at 231-933-1910.
Help Your School Have Access to Grants and Funding by Completing the Application
It is critical that all households complete the 
CEP Education Benefits Application. This information determines the amount of money our schools receive from a variety of State and Federal supplemental programs like Title I A, At-Risk (31a), Title II A, E-Rate, etc. These supplemental programs have the potential to offer supports and services for our students including, but not limited to:
- Instructional supports (staff, supplies and materials, etc.)
- Non-instructional services (counseling, social work, health services, etc.)
- Professional learning for staff
- Parent and community engagement supplies and activities
- Technology
- Pandemic-EBT
Please complete and submit the application as soon as possible to ensure that additional funding for our school is available to meet the needs of our students. All information on the application submitted is confidential. Without your assistance in completing and returning the application, our schools cannot maximize the use of available State and Federal funds.
TCAPS Food Service is Now Hiring!
Would you like a well paying job where you can work while your children are in school and be off when they are out of school?
Snow days, No Problem. Attending your child's sporting events and other after school activities, No Problem. Enjoying all of the holidays with your family and no job responsibilities. No problem. Summers with your family. No Problem. Please go to the TCAPS employment page and join our food service team.
Other News & Updates
• Dietitian
Starting with the 2023-24 school year TCAPS Food and Nutrition Services would like to welcome our new registered dietitian team, 
Pisanick Partners. They will be happy to help our families with any nutrition and dietetic questions you may have. Families can contact them at (440)-922-6770 or Support@ppllc.info.
• Menu Information
Food service will begin posting the menus online to try and give families more information on what we are planning to serve. Please be aware that due to supply chain disruptions and food shortages we may have to unexpectedly substitute food items that are posted on the menu. These substitutions could change the allergies listed on the online menu. We recommend that parents or the students with allergies check with the kitchen staff daily. Changes will occasionally occur and we want to ensure that all students with allergies are kept safe. Our staff will also continue to monitor all students known to have allergies.
• Meatless Options and Salad Bars
TCAPS Food Service will offer meatless meal options every day in all buildings. This could change on some days due to food supply challenges. TCAPS will also continue to offer all-you-can-eat salad bars in all buildings. At WSH and CHS, we will also continue to offer the all-you-can-eat hot veggie bars.
We hope all students will join us each day for breakfast and lunch to enjoy delicious and nutritious meals that provide fuel for the day's activities.
• Food Service Fact
TCAPS Food Service offers Michigan produce in our meals, somewhere in our district, nearly every school day of every school year.
• TCAPS Food and Nutrition Services Suggestion Box
Please leave your suggestions for TCAPS Food and Nutrition Services here. Any suggestions submitted to this suggestion box will be considered in our planning to ensure continuous improvements in all of our day to day services and operations. Your responses are anonymous so we cannot respond back to these suggestions. We simply want to use your input to help guide us in our decisions.
For Students Who Require Special Diets or Meal Accommodations
For students who require special diets or meal accommodations, please fill out this 
form and return it to your school's main office.
Food Assistance Guide
View A Guide to Food Assistance and Eating Local for information on local pantries, food assistance programs, and more.
Manage Your Child's Lunch Account
Although meals (including a milk or juice) are now free for all students, milk, juice, and additional items are available to purchase for students who bring a lunch.
New Vending Machines Offer Healthy Alternatives
Having access to healthy food items and meals outside of the normal cafeteria operating hours just got a little bit easier. TCAPS has installed two new vending machines in the cafeteria at Central High School as part of a pilot program. The vending machines contain healthy food items that meet the same federal nutrition regulations as all other food sold in the school cafeteria. Sample items include: salads, yogurt, sandwiches, fruit, granola bars, etc.
Students and staff can purchase snack items as well as meals qualifying under the Federal Free and Reduced Price School Meals Program using either cash or their meal accounts. For students who qualify for free/reduced meals, the purchase would count towards their daily meal allowance. View a tutorial on how to use the machines: