Many Wiregrass school districts raise lunch prices

Rising fuel prices aren’t just hitting schools’ transportation budgets, they’re also causing an increase in the cost of feeding students, a cost that soon may be passed on to you.

According to Perry Fulton, director of the Alabama Department of Education’s child nutrition program, about half of the school systems around the state have decided to increase their school lunch prices for the upcoming school year. Fulton said the price increases are largely a result of increased transportation prices’ impact on food costs.

“What used to cost $300 to transport now costs $1,000,” he said.

While federal programs cover some of the costs for school food programs in the form of the free and reduced lunch program for low-income students, these funds don’t cover the full cost of school cafeteria programs. Fulton said the rapid inflation in food prices this year have left many school systems with no other choice but to increase charges to balance their budgets.

“Food prices are going crazy,” he said.

In Henry County, the school system is raising lunch prices for the first time in 12 years as a result of increasing costs.

“We hate to do it, but we’re just like everybody else and fuel prices affect everything,” Superintendent Dennis Coe said.

The Elba City Schools system is raising its lunch prices, and child nutrition program director Kathy Piland said cafeteria staff are looking at ways to reduce costs. Piland said some cost-cutting moves include reducing the number of snacks available at lunch, paring serving sizes down to the state-mandated minimum and balancing high cost items with low cost items.

“If you serve something that’s high one day, you serve something next time that’s low,” she said.

According to Fulton, while some families won’t feel the increased prices because they’re in the free lunch program, and others have sufficient income to make it a non-issue, families caught in the middle — those who earn too much to participate in the free or reduced lunch program, but not enough to buffer them from increasing food prices — will suffer. Fulton said increased food prices could cost families about an extra $90 per year per child. Multiply that by a few children, and the increased costs could create a real burden for families.

“It’s very straining on a household budget,” he said.

Fulton said the earliest the state could amend its free and reduced lunch eligibility guidelines would be in 2009.