The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District is reinstating a procedure limiting student meal charges after the district accrued nearly $80,000 in student meal debt during the 2024-25 school year.

Prior to 2024-25, there were no charging limits for secondary students and a maximum of two charges for elementary students. The district typically carried about $20,000 in unpaid student meal balances.

Superintendent Luke Meinert said that in an effort to be more flexible, the district lifted limits on student meal accounts for the 2024-25 school year. The result was nearly $80,000 in unpaid balances, a level he called “unsustainable.”

Meinert explained that while the district receives federal funds from the National School Lunch Program, those funds do not cover food costs or personnel t

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