District 196 Lunch Prices Could Increase 5 Cents Next Year

The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district board will vote on May 9 on a proposed 5-cent lunch price increase for the 2011-12 school year, which food and nutrition services coordinator Wendy Knight presented on Monday.

This would bring the price of a basic lunch at the elementary school level to $2.10, and to $2.25 at the middle and high schools in the district. Adult lunch prices would increase to $3.30.

Lunch prices last increased in the district in 2007-08, by 20 cents, Knight said.

The increase is a federal requirement under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, to try to achieve “price equity,” Knight said, where all students who buy school lunch are contributing about the same amount of money to the school.

For every student who receives free school lunch, the district receives $2.72 reimbursement per lunch. For every student who receives a 40-cent reduced-price lunch, the district receives $2.32. About 22 percent of students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch.

The goal is to gradually increase the price of a regular lunch, which brings in 38 cents reimbursement per lunch, to $2.34 so the total contribution also is $2.72.

While food and transportation costs to the district have increased, Knight said the district’s food service fund—separate from the general fund and all others—is "healthy." She said were it the district’s choice, lunch prices probably wouldn’t need to increase.

“We continue to purchase well here in our district,” she said. “With our fund balance we should be able to weather the storm for another year or two.”

The federal mandate probably is more challenging for smaller, outstate schools without as much purchasing power, Knight said. Some districts that charge $1.50 for a lunch are being told to increase prices by a dime per year, she said.

“It could throw a nutrition program out the door at some districts,” she said, though District 196 should be able to maintain the nutritional initiatives it must—and chooses to—make.

Knight said the district focuses on healthy choices for students—fresh or frozen vegetables, fat-free or 1-percent dairy, whole grains, fruits, lean protein. Lunches also include locally grown items as part of a farm-to-school program, and periodically incorporate other Minnesota-produced food items.

Though the district doesn’t know exactly how cost increases might continue, board member Joel Albright said the district is providing options at a good value for students.

“Even with the extra nickel this is a very good deal,” he said.