Overseas school lunch balance often overlooked during summer PCS season

  • Published
  • By Exchange Pacific Region Public Affairs
CAMP FOSTER, Japan --  With a large number of service members overseas in the Pacific choosing summer as the time to make their permanent change of station moves, one thing they sometimes overlook when clearing their base installations is their children's school lunch balance.

For PCS-ing service members at installations on Okinawa, Korea or mainland Japan whose children eat lunch at Department of Defense Schools, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which runs the school lunch programs, should be one of the places they clear, but this is not always the case, according to Craig Masek, food program specialist for the Exchange Pacific Region.

"We have a large number of people who forget to close their overseas school lunch accounts when they PCS," Mr. Masek said. "It's actually quite simple to do which means going to their local Exchange customer service counter and closing their account. They will have either a positive or negative balance and will either receive or pay off the balance."

When service members get to a stateside duty station, forgetting to close out their overseas school lunch balance can sometimes lead to a few challenges.

"It can be an issue involving the service member going through the process of having to wire their balance to us or us having to wire a balance to them," Mr. Masek said, who explained that service members can save themselves a headache and some time by making a simple trip to their local Exchange prior to PCS-ing.

"Where it can also be a big issue is in a case like Okinawa where Sailors and Marines have easy access to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service here, but once they leave, they may not see one of our facilities, so they won't have direct access to us. We're not common, for example, on Marine Corps bases."

Exchange customers have the option to check or pay their school lunch balance online at www.shopmyexchange.com by going to the school lunch program link under community information. However, in order to actually close their accounts they still have to physically visit their local Exchange.

For those personnel who stay overseas in the Pacific, their balance will carry over for the next school year and there is no need to close the account. Nevertheless, they should update their children's information, such as a change of school, in the Exchange school lunch computer system to prevent any issues, according to Mr. Masek.

During a typical school year, the Exchange serves more than 9,000 school lunches per day and 169,000 meals per month to students throughout the Pacific region.