School Lunch Prices to Rise

In this Pilot file photo, Michelle Ritter, a kindergarten teaching assistant, asks students if they want to buy lunch on the first day of school at West Pine Elementary.

By JOHN LENTZ

As of Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Moore County Schools will raise the price of school lunches starting with the next school year to comply with federal regulations, officials said Monday evening.

Chief Finance Officer Mike Griffin explained the change before the school board members during their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday.

"Federal regulations require an increase in our current lunch prices," Griffin said. "The new regulations state that our average lunch pricing should be at least $2.46, as this amount more closely aligns to the USDA reimbursement rate for free lunches. By charging a lower price, we are essentially subsidizing paid students with our free reimbursements."

The price changes will be implemented over a six-year period in two-year increments, beginning in the 2013-2014 school year.

"Current prices are $1 for breakfast in all school, and lunch at $1.75 in elementary and middle schools and at $2 for high school students," Griffin said. "For 2013-2014 breakfast prices will remain the same while lunch prices will rise to $2 for elementary and middle school students and $2.25 for high school."

Students will see another increase during the 2015-2016 school year, called "phase 2," with lunch prices rising to $2.25 for middle school students and to $2.50 for high school students. Elementary school student lunches will remain at $2.

Phase 3 prices, to be implemented in the 2017-2018 school year, are as of yet undetermined.

Read more about the school board meeting in Wednesday's edition of the Pilot.

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doughnuts 4 months, 1 week ago

And the lottery money goes where again?

Bcc1970 4 months, 1 week ago

Subsidizing the paid lunches? Right. Maybe the kids can now get a slice of cheese on their burgers?

LSM 4 months, 1 week ago

"By charging a lower price, we are essentially subsidizing paid students with our free reimbursements."

The forty-six percent free breakfast and lunch children who pay nothing somehow makes lunches for those that do pay cheaper, now how does that work? I guess it is the same thinking that spending money to provide billions of dollars worth of food stamps creates revenue.

Arestorer 4 months, 1 week ago

How about lowering the subsidies? We "are" trying to trim State and Federal spending, arent we? Dont you love how our Federal accountants figure things?

golfchick 4 months, 1 week ago

How about keep the lunch prices the same and reduce the number of subsidizing students? Just because I work, I have to continue to pay increasing prices at school. I have even had them charge numerous things to my childs account that they didn't even eat. Crazy!!!

eflat7 4 months, 1 week ago

More of the same. Nice.

OWNID 4 months, 1 week ago

oops. wrong topic

recondo 4 months, 1 week ago

I have three children in moore county schools and if your are going to raise prices how about at least go back to feeding the children a decent amount of food. four chicken nuggets and a scoop of mashed potatoes for a high school age child in my opinion is totally unacceptable. i attended moore county schools my entire primary education from k-12 and i remember the lunches were actually quite good and you always had enough. i also remember the first people to the schools were usually the cafeteria staff because the actually had to cook something not throw it in a microwave. from what i saw the other day at union pines i am lead to assume that inmates in the county jail eat better than the kids in the school system today. Fix this problem and you might not hear as many complaints from students or parents if you need to raise the prices

Bcc1970 4 months, 1 week ago

@recondo: I am in total agreement that the amount and quality of food is just not there. We send our kids off with lunch from home simply to make sure they get enough to eat.

hideysmom 4 months, 1 week ago

@recondo: I agree, chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes does not seem like enough for a high school student. I noticed on the school menu that they also offered green beans, carrots, roll, mixed fruit and applesauce. If your child had gotten the whole lunch instead of just the nuggets and potatoes, that would have filled them up. I ate lunch at an elementary school yesterday, which had one less vegetable and one less fruit, the food was really good and I was full afterwards.