Title: Public Schools Face the Rising Costs of Serving Lunch - The New York Times
Headings: Public Schools Face the Rising Costs of Serving Lunch
Public Schools Face the Rising Costs of Serving Lunch
Content: But there is a wide range of what districts charge paying customers: in Fairfax County, Va., lunch costs $2.65 in elementary school and $2.75 in middle and high schools, while in Austin, Tex., it is $2.15 and $2.50, respectively. Other districts have kept prices far lower than costs — in New York City, for example, there is a $1.10 gap — to make lunch affordable. A study published last year by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization in Washington, argued that this arrangement “appears to be subsidizing meals for children whose families are much better off” than the children for whom the reimbursements are meant. It urged a gradual rise in lunch prices to prevent federal money from being “siphoned off to keep prices low for paid meals.” Congress heeded the suggestion, tying an increase of 6 cents in the reimbursement rates, the first in 30 years, to the mandate for increased meal prices in the child nutrition bill. Image
A salad bar at a New York City public school typifies the healthier approach to school lunches under the child nutrition bill. Credit...
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Based on a convoluted formula that takes into account inflation and the average price of meals sold in schools, certain districts — like New York City, where lunch is sold for $1.50 — did not have to raise prices this year. But next year, it could be different, unless the districts decide to use their own money to subsidize lunches.