Title: School lunch prices on the rise | Education | buffalonews.com
Headings: School lunch prices on the rise
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School lunch prices on the rise
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Content: The healthier lunches that school districts now serve cost more, and the price of health insurance and other employee benefits continue to rise. All that has happened at a time when fewer students are buying lunch and enrollment in most schools has declined. In Frontier, for example, the district calculates it spent $5.48 for every school meal sold last school year. But it took in only $4.79 per meal – including lunch and snack sales, as well as state and federal reimbursements and the value of surplus food the government supplies. The increasing costs of milk and other foods have squeezed the Frontier lunch budget, but there’s another factor that has driven up expenses even more. Employee benefits last year increased 28 percent in the district’s food service budget. “Labor costs are going up,” said Frontier Food Service Director Susan Birmingham. “ Certainly, the cost of state retirement in New York State and health insurance is really astronomical.” A proposed 50-cent increase to Frontier’s school lunch prices for the new school year is on hold as Birmingham and administrators explore other options, said Boyle, the district School Board president. Food service directors across the region say they are taking steps to save money as they expand healthy food options.