School Nutrition Program

The Child Nutrition Programs administered by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) plays a critical role in ensuring that all children are ready to learn by supporting nutritious meal service in schools, day care centers, family day care homes, residential child care institutions, and summer feeding programs. Massachusetts school districts certify students through the Virtual Gateway for free or reduced price meals. Households with school-aged children can also apply for free or reduced price meals through the Virtual Gateway's Self Service page.

This Virtual Gateway supported program is currently in the Pilot phase and limited to select Massachusetts school districts. For more information, contact the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) .

Reference Guides

The following are quick reference guides intended to assist School District's Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) on the job.

• Contacting the Virtual Gateway Helpdesk 
• Virtual Gateway Login Job Aid 
  This job aid outlining how to access and log in to the Virtual Gateway.
• PACE CBT Refresher Reference Guide (PDF)  (Updated 6/27/2012)
  Learn how to take online (CBT) courses or sections of a particular course as a refresher.
• School Nutrition Program (SNP) Overview Reference Guide 
  This reference guide provides LEAs with a brief overview of the School Nutrition Program and how they will use the Virtual Gateway to directly certify children for free school meals, directly verify children for free or reduced price meals and how to retrieve online submitted applications through the Common Intake Application Inbox.
• Using the Virtual Gateway's My Account Page (MAP) Direct Certification Reference Guide  (Updated 8/2/2012)
  This reference guide outlines how an LEA can directly certify children for free meals and how they can view the Match History Results from the direct certification files.
• Using the Virtual Gateway's My Account Page (MAP) Direct Verification Reference Guide  (Updated 8/2/2012)
  This reference guide outlines how an LEA can directly verify students for free or reduced price meals and how LEA can view the Match History Results from the direct verification files.
• Using the Virtual Gateway's Common Intake Application Inbox Reference Guide  (Updated 8/2/2012)
  This reference guide outlines how a user can retrieve an online submitted School Nutrition application from the Common Intake Application Inbox.
• Key to Understanding Direct Certification and Direct Verification Match History Results 
  This key provides guidance on understanding the Direct Certification and Direct Verification Match Results.
• Key to Understanding Direct Certification and Direct Verification Error Messages 
  This key provides guidance on understanding error messages that may appear when running the Direct Certification and Direct Verification Match process.
• The Virtual Gateway's School Nutrition Program (SNP) Road Map to Reference Guide (PDF)  (Updated 6/27/2012)
  Access this document for SNP LEA user learning opportunities. This document provides a 'roadmap' of the learning opportunities available for SNP LEAs who will be conducting the direct certification; direct verification and retrieving online submitted SNP applications through the Common Intake Application Inbox.

 

 

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This information is provided by the Virtual Gateway within Health and Human Services.