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Changing POS Meal Prices

Where the Paid/Reduced/Free/Adult/Staff price tiers live, why they're different from item and recipe prices, and how to request a price change.

Written by Souha Alameddine

Changing POS Meal Prices

The price a student is charged at the register, meaning the Paid, Reduced, Free, Adult, and Staff price tiers, lives on the POS template assigned to a terminal, not on individual items or recipes. Gaia applies the right tier automatically from each student's eligibility, so changing a "meal price" means changing these tiers on the template.

This is different from item and recipe prices. Update Item Prices from the Pantry changes the cost or à-la-carte price of a single product, and Recipe Pricing covers a recipe's cost per serving and suggested sale price. Neither changes what a student pays for a reimbursable meal at checkout.

Can you change meal prices yourself?

Not today. Price tiers are part of the POS template, which the Gaia team maintains. You can see which template a terminal uses on the POS > Terminals page (see Setting Up POS Terminals), and the tier amounts are changed by request. Email your Customer Success Manager (CSM) using the form below.

Tip: Free and reduced prices are limited by USDA rules. A free meal is always $0.00, and reduced prices are capped. Send us the tiers you want and we'll confirm they're within the current limits. See USDA school meals for the current rules.

How to request a price change

Subject: POS meal price change, [District name]

Hi [CSM name],

We'd like to update our POS meal prices. Details:

District: [district name]
School(s): [all schools / specific schools]
Meal: [Breakfast / Lunch / Snack]
Template (if known): [template name]
New prices by tier: Paid $[__], Reduced $[__], Free $0.00, Adult $[__], Staff $[__]
À-la-carte item prices to change (if any): [item, $__]
Effective date: [date]

Thanks!

As more of these settings become user-facing in Gaia, we'll update this article. Until then, price changes go through your CSM.

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