School lunch prices to rise this September

Date: 7/20/2011

July 20, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — The cost of school lunches is going up, but even with the 25-cent increase approved by the School Committee at its July 12 meeting, the price won’t approach what the district actually spends to put food on the table for its students.

Beginning in September, West Springfield elementary school students will pay $2 for hot lunch, and middle and high school students will pay $2.25. Lunch prices during the 2010-11 school year were $1.75 and $2 respectively.

The motion to approve this price increase was made by School Committee Vice Chairman Daniel Sullivan and passed by a vote of 5-1, with School Committee member Nancy Farrell the only opposing vote.

The price increase was necessary to keep the school district in compliance with the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) reimbursement policy and the federal Healthy Hungry Kids Act of 2010. NSLP requires that school systems participating in the federally- funded free and reduced price lunch program for low-income students raise their lunch prices annually until they bring the cost of in line with the federal reimbursement of $2.46 per lunch.

West Springfield Food Service Director Dario Nardi said his department would notify parents of the 25-cent increase through the school’s Connect Ed service and by posting the change on the School Department Web site by Aug. 1.

As requested by Mayor Edward Gibson at the June 29 School Committee meeting, West Springfield Public Schools Business Manager Carey Sheehan provided the committee with a breakdown of the non-food costs associated with providing the district’s school lunch program prior to the committee’s vote.

He said the town covers the cost of health insurance for cafeteria employees, as is the expense of funding those employees’ pensions. The town also matches 50 percent of the cost of Medicare payments for cafeteria workers. The cost of trash collection, natural gas and electricity for the cafeteria operation is factored into the services and utility payments in the school department budget, and $456,000 in unassigned school lunch-related costs is also assigned to the school budget.

Sheehan said using estimates for some of the expenditures, he calculated an overall cost of $1.5 million to serve school lunches during the 2010-11 school year.

Without these added expenses, he said the actual cost to serve students hot lunch was $3.20 per meal. With the expenses factored in, the cost rose to $4.05 per meal.

“If we tried to come up with a cost to cover all the expenses [involved in serving school lunches] we would have to add $2 to the [daily] cost for the 30 percent of people who pay full price, making it roughly $4.25 per lunch.” Sheehan said.