School lunch prices take bite at wallet
Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/hl/News/25047/
More brown lunch bags will likely be seen throughout the halls of local schools in the 2008-09 school year.
As decided at this month’s Siloam Springs School District school board meeting, breakfast and lunch prices will increase when school begins on Aug. 18.
School breakfasts for students not receiving free and reduced meals, which were previously priced at $. 80, will now cost a dollar. Likewise, the rates for adult breakfasts have been upped by $. 20 and will cost $ 1. 10.
“ I hope they understand our costs are increasing each year just like their food bill at home, ” said the district’s chief financial officer Quintin Trammell when asked how he feels the public will react to the increase.
The increase was first recommended to Trammell by Food Service Director Kay Parmain on June 5 and was presented to board members at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
“ Expenditures for food increased substantially this school year, ” Parmain said in her increase proposal. “ An analysis of actual invoices paid for the period July through May for the past two years shows that the cost for bread, milk, produce and other food increased 18. 22 percent in 2007-08 compared to 2006-07. ”
Locally 21, 179 more breakfasts were served in schools during the 2007-08 school year. Due to an increase in students and visitors taking meals at local schools, 25, 610 more lunches were also served last year.
Despite the steady increase in food, labor and general supplies, it has been six years since the last local meal increase. During the 2001-02 school year the district saw a similar increase to prices which were also related to rising food and labor costs.
Before marching through breakfast and lunch lines in the local school district this year, students and visitors might want to throw some extra change in their pockets. Lunch prices for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, which were set at $ 1. 25 last year, have been raised to $ 1. 50 this year. First through fifth graders who were once paying $ 1. 50 for noontime meals will now spend $ 1. 75. Sixth- through 12 th graders will pay $ 2 and adult visitors can expect to shell out $ 2. 50 for lunch. Teachers will also feel the price increase crunch and will pay $ 2. 50 alongside other adults. Several factors feed into the price upswing. The gradual shift of the economy and a jump in overhead and operating costs are directly related to the increase. Some vendors have added a fuel surcharge per delivery drop in addition to increasing food prices to offset surging fuel costs, Parmain said.
During the 2006-07 school year, the local district spent $ 37, 347 more than it took in by the food service program.
Last year was no different — during the 2007-08 school year, the district spent an estimated $ 21, 000 more than it took in from continuing operations.
“ As a result, our food service reserve funds have dropped to a point where we cannot pay our food service bills each month if we continue to let it drop any lower, ” Trammell said.
The school’s operating fund contributes $ 55, 000 to the food service fund each year. The newly imposed meal increase is expected to bring in an additional $ 38, 000 per year, Trammell said.
Between the 2006-07 school year and the 2007-08 school year dramatic increases were seen on area district’s grocery bills. For Siloam Springs, $ 7, 482. 28 more was spent on produce during 2007-08 than 2006-07. The price of milk alone increased nearly 32 percent.
Siloam Springs isn’t the only district that has had to cinch its lunch belt as of late.
In April, the Rogers School District board approved a lunch price increase of 50 cents which will start with classes in August. Rogers’ breakfasts will be bumped from $ 1 per meal to $ 1. 25.
Lincoln School District, which used to provide some of the cheapest meals to students and visitors, will bump up their prices to be comparable to neighboring districts for the upcoming school year. Breakfasts that were once served at 50 cents will now be a quarter more.