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: Credit...
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The new pricing requirement, which comes amid school budget cuts and a lingering recession, is the first time the federal government has gotten into the business of cafeteria prices since its school lunch program was established in 1946. Under the roughly $10 billion program, families with incomes up to 130 percent of the poverty level— $28,665 a year for a family of four — are eligible for free meals. Those that earn 130 percent to 185 percent of poverty level, or $40,793 for a family of four, qualify for reduced-price meals. The federal government reimburses districts $2.72 for free meals, $2.32 for reduced-price meals and 26 cents for the rest. Generally, this money is combined with proceeds from the sale of meals and snacks into a single pot. 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.