Rising Costs Results In Increases For Student Meals

by Nicole Reome | July 10, 2008 8:06 am

FULTON, NY – With the rising costs of food and fuel, Fulton City School District’s food service program is feeling the affects. As a result, students can expect to see an increase in meal and milk prices for the coming school year.

Terry Warwick, director of Fulton’s food service program, delivered a report on the program to the Fulton Board of Education this week.

Warwick pointed out that while the program is intended to be self-sustaining, the costs of serving meals has escalated over the past year. The program employs 47 employees and is responsible for serving more than 3,200 meals each day across eight different sites.

Warwick noted that while the program is seeing an increase in the numbers of students who purchase lunches, some of the offerings are costing the program more than the money it receives.

“Gas prices certainly have affected food prices,” Warwick said. She noted that some costs — such as the cost for produce for students –  have doubled from the prices the program paid a year ago.

Warwick pointed out that the district receives federal and state support for each lunch it serves at different funding levels, based on a student’s level of payment. Reimbursable meals must meet USDA nutrition guidelines and come in standard portion sizes.

For students who receive free lunch, the district receives $2.49 from federal sources and approximately 6.5-cents from the state. Reduced lunch prices bring 25-cents from students and are reimbursed at $2.09 from federal sources and approximately 21.5-cents from the state.

For students who pay full price for meals — which was set at $1.60 for the 2007-08 school year — the district received 25-cents from federal sources and 6.5-cents from the state.

“For paid meals, we receive much less,” said business administrator Kathy Nichols. While $2.55 comes back to the district for each free or reduced lunch, a paid lunch only recoups $1.91.

Nichols said that despite rising costs for food service, the federal reimbursement rate for the coming school year is increasing only 10-cents.

“The state (reimbursement rate) is going down,” she added. “(The state will pay) 98 percent of what it did in 2007-08.”

With changes in the food offerings at the secondary level, such as the salad bar at the high school, Warwick said that the paid lunches are going out for less than cost.

“It costs more for us to make it than we get for it,” she said. She pointed out, however, that the new choices have stimulated the numbers of students buying lunch.

Across the county, Nichols noted that Fulton’s food prices fall somewhere in the middle. She noted that while districts have scrutinized raising prices, every district is expecting to feel the affects of rising prices.

“We have been very incremental (in increases for costs to students),” Superintendent Bill Lynch noted.

“But our costs have not been incremental,” board member Robbin Griffin noted.

Nichols pointed out that Fulton that has a high percentage of students who receive or are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

“Approximately 48.4 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced,” she said.

“We’re close (to that level of participation),” Warwick noted. “But there are a lot of free or reduced eligible that are not taking advantage.”

Warwick noted that the district has partnered with several area programs in an effort to boost participation. She noted, too, that every household in the district is mailed an application packet.

After the report, the board discussed meal prices for the coming year.

The program originally requested increases in lunch prices of 5-cents for elementary lunches and 15-cents for secondary lunches. Milk prices, which increased from 40-cents to 50 cents last year, were not changed.

The board expressed concerns, however, for the deficit that could result with the increases that were requested.

“We are not trying to find the break even point by reducing the number of kids who eat,” Nichols noted.

“We are trying to deal with reality,” Griffin said. With the rising costs, she said that keeping prices artificially low for the coming year could result in a significant increase next year.

In an effort to find a middle ground, the board agreed to increase elementary lunch prices to $1.75 for the coming year and secondary prices to $1.90. Elementary prices were set lower because students do not have the choices that secondary students do, such as the salad bar. The board also agreed to set milk prices at 55-cents.

Even with the increase, board member Brian Hotaling noted that the price for a lunch at the junior high and high school comes in lower than a parent would spend to make lunches at home.

“That is only $1.50 more per week,” he said.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/rising-costs-results-in-increases-for-student-meals/

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