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
Increasing costs
Closing the gap

Content: School lunches are still a bargain. Even as prices have gone up and meals have gotten healthier, local schools charge less for student lunches than what they cost to prepare. There are few places you can get a healthy kids meal with an entree, fruits and vegetables, and milk for under $3. “A school lunch is still a good value for the meal that’s provided,” said Anne Rich, food service director in Grand Island. But it’s not as cheap as it once was. After years of using federal school-lunch dollars to keep prices low, districts have been required since 2011-12 to steadily increase the price of a paid school lunch to close the gap between what the government pays for a student meal and what a child pays. The federal law that required cafeterias to serve more fruits and vegetables also mandates that schools increase lunch prices by up to 10 cents a year until they close that gap. Many local school districts are imposing increases of a nickel or a dime this year to satisfy the federal requirement that lunch prices rise to meet government subsidies. That has pushed the average price of an elementary school lunch in Erie and Niagara counties to $1.82 – up 4.4 percent compared to a year ago. The average high school lunch will cost $2.