Free & reduced lunch application software that carries the whole determination
Trinity turns the free/reduced meal application from a paper pile into a pipeline: families apply online in English, Spanish, or Vietnamese; processors work a queue with income computed against the current Income Eligibility Guidelines; students are matched to the roster; and determination letters generate and email themselves — with every step stamped for the auditor.
An application families can finish
The online form follows the USDA prototype application: household members, income by pay period with automatic annualization, SNAP/TANF/FDPIR case numbers, foster/homeless/migrant/runaway status, SSN last-four with a decline option, electronic signature, and the official use-of-information and non-discrimination statements. Drafts save automatically, each school gets its own shareable link, and paper applications enter through the same admin form so everything lands in one queue.
Processing that respects the 10-day clock
Processors see a live queue with per-school scoping, overdue highlighting against the federal 10-day processing window, duplicate detection, and a needs-more-information loop that emails the family and captures their response. Matching suggests roster students by name, birth date, and school with confidence scoring — a processor confirms; the system never guesses. Districts that require dual review (for example, North Carolina) can turn on a second-reviewer workflow per school.
- Determination computed from household size and income against the year’s IEG thresholds — categorical eligibility short-circuits to free.
- Direct certification file imports with matching review, so DC results protect students from less favorable application outcomes.
- Carryover grace handled per school-start date (30 operating days), so July and August serves are priced correctly.
- Per-school application numbering and a per-application audit report for administrative reviews.
Letters, verification, and the federal paper trail
Approval and denial letters generate as PDFs on district letterhead in the household’s language, email automatically with the letter attached, and carry a proof-of-notice stamp. Verification runs in-system: sample selection, the 10-day adverse-action clock, outcome recording, and the FNS-742 Verification Collection Report assembled from live data. Racial/ethnic data collection and the civil-rights report are built in as well.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — the field set, income periods, categorical questions, SSN handling, e-signature, and required statements follow the USDA prototype application, with the official Spanish and Vietnamese translations of the legal text.
A scoring engine compares the children on the application to the district roster by name, date of birth, and school, and presents ranked candidates with confidence labels. A human confirms every match — nothing links automatically.
Upload the state DC file, review the proposed matches, and confirm — students certify as free with the DC source recorded, and a later application can never downgrade an active DC result.
Yes: sample selection, adverse-action timing per 7 CFR 245.6a, outcome tracking including increased benefits, and the FNS-742 report generated from the same records.
Keep exploring
Where families apply, check status, and add lunch money.
How determinations drive pricing at the register the same day.
The serving-line experience the eligibility spine feeds.
Applications, verification, and letters are all in the flat per-site fee.
Watch an application go end to end
Family submits, processor determines, letter emails, the register prices correctly — one demo, your configuration.