School lunch prices on the rise throughout metro-east

Keep collecting those nickels and dimes during the summer, because full-price school lunch costs are creeping up all around the metro-east and look likely to keep going up for years to come.

Schools serving U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved lunches, which include private schools, receive subsidies not just for the free and reduced lunches but the so-called full-price meals as well. Most likely, the money you hand over for your child’s full-price lunch does not fully pay for the cost of food and labor that goes into that lunch; a complicated formula called Paid Lunch Equity determines how much the federal government kicks in for the child’s meal.

Even parents who pay $2.50 for a full-price student meal in New Athens and Grant District 110 in Fairview Heights, the highest reported in the metro-east area, are not paying the full cost of the meal.

Many families in the metro-east who qualify for free or reduced meal programs will continue to pay 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch no matter the district’s cost for paid meals. Some districts like East St. Louis District 189 have so many students that qualify the entire district is granted the status to save on administration costs.

According to the USDA, in 1969 just over 15 percent of students getting lunch at school were free or reduced. Aside from 1979 and the mid-to-late ’80s, and 2001, that percentage has steadily increased to 71.6 percent today.

The PLE uses the number of paid meals in the district and “weighted average price” among other factors that determine how much schools will receive from the federal government for each free, reduced and paid meal. That PLE is why lunch prices aren’t stagnant.

“You put the numbers in it, and it calculates where you should be” in prices charged, said Queen of Peace Principal Sharon Needham. Queen of Peace charges $2.50, she said.

Queen of Peace in Belleville is among the nearly 20 metro-east public and private schools that receive meals prepared by Belleville District 118; but each school sets its price based on its own labor and PLE, according to Steve Ebbesmeyer, director of food services for District 118.

“Over time, the federal government (USDA) wants the price of a paid lunch meal to more closely reflect the free meal reimbursement rate, less the paid meal reimbursement,” Ebbesmeyer said.

For instance, the Belleville elementary and middle school district charged $1.75 for a full-priced meal last year; the free meal reimbursement was $3.04; and the paid meal reimbursement was 34 cents. The actual cost to produce the meal fluctuates with food prices, but Ebbesmeyer said, “we don’t make a profit.”

But according to the PLE during the 2014-2015 school year, the USDA would have liked the district to have charged $2.70 per full meal, Ebbesmeyer said. Belleville District 118 school board will look at increasing the lunch cost by 10 cents at its board meeting on Tuesday.

Freeburg District 77 is among those who haven’t yet decided about the coming school year’s full-paid price, but last year was among the highest in the area at $3.25 for lunch. Freeburg District 70 had among the lowest prices for lunch, making the cost grade-dependent, with $1.85 for kindergarten through second grade and $2 for third through eighth grades.

Many other districts in the area have decided to increase prices, including Pontiac-William Holliday District 105 in Fairview Heights and Wolf Branch District 113 in Swansea, each by 10 cents.

The USDA wants districts to increase the price so that its reimbursements will be less and eventually hit zero, which Ebbesmeyer does not think is achievable given ever-increasing food costs. The most the USDA mandates a school district must raise lunch prices is 10 cents a year to help bridge the gap, but districts can raise by more if they choose.

Smithton District 130 raised the lunch price by 25 cents to $2.25 last summer and plans no increase this year, Superintendent Susan Homes said.

“The government cannot force us to raise lunch prices more than 10 cents per year as we move toward compliance,” she said. “However, our expenses exceed our revenue in our lunch program so the increase of 25 cents was a move to help us continue to decrease our lunch program deficit.”

Grant District 110 in Fairview Heights is maintaining a paid lunch at $2.50 for the third year, Superintendent Matt Stines said.

“But it’s hard to say when we will need to increase prices,” he said. “Food costs have gone up in order to meet all of the healthy food requirements.”

What’s on the tray

“The cost to produce a lunch tray has increased because of the more stringent guidelines for what can be on a tray; that’s really it,” said Brian Mentzer, assistant superintendent at District 201, which encompasses Belleville East and West high schools.

Lunch at the Belleville high schools is increasing by 10 cents, to $2.50 this year.

Most districts have been phasing in changes since the nutrition standards were made final in January 2012. The changes increased the number and variety of fruits and vegetables, reduced sodium and the caloric maximums and made grains “whole-grain rich.” The requirements are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

The 2010 act meant that school lunches went from a vague “1/2 to ¾ cup of fruits and vegetables combined per day” to making a minimum of 3/4 cup of vegetable and half a cup of fruit. It also specifies the type of vegetable, putting in place a weekly requirement of colors: dark green, red/orange, beans/peas (legumes) and starchy.

Last year’s kindergartners were the first to know only the new standards. For the next 12 years, they will know only lunch trays filled with colorful vegetables and whole wheat products. They’ll never see a school lunch with a version of chocolate milk that is not fat-free; they’ll never have a slice of white bread on their tray.

And that’s a good thing, Ebbesmeyer says.

“Younger students are seeing this weekly, and they’re becoming accustomed to it,” he said. “So children over time will get more acclimated to eating the broccoli, to eating the beans more often. And the whole-grain bread — we’re used to eating white bread. (When the whole grain was introduced) the kids said ‘ew, this is different’ but as time goes on, the kids are getting more used to seeing more product that are not what we had growing up. It’s been a rather smooth transition.”

He said the push back is coming from students in the upper elementary grades, fourth grade and up.

“They didn’t always see the broccoli weekly, or the black beans,” Ebbesmeyer said. “We utilized them periodically but not always.”

The schools use the same trick parents have long known: adding cheese to steamed broccoli increases the chances kids will eat it. In fact, District 118 plans to serve steamed broccoli with cheese during the first week of school.

Mentzer says the high schools are seeing a decrease in overall lunch sales, but the nutrition is improved and “that’s a good thing.”

“The reason why we experienced a decrease in sales is there is an adjustment going on ... They have fewer a la carte and more tray sales,” he said.

On the first day of school — Aug. 17 — Abraham Lincoln Elementary and other District 118 schools will serve a lunch with a choice of sausage pizza, grilled chicken sandwich, popcorn chicken salad with a roll or a turkey and cheese sandwich. The meal will also have green beans, peaches and milk.

Ebbesmeyer said he expects many students to go straight for the pizza, but also a good number to try the popcorn chicken because it’s new this year.

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 8:07 AM with the headline "School lunch prices on the rise throughout metro-east."