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Board approves small increase in school meal prices to reduce program losses
Summary
The Winchester Board of Education voted unanimously to raise breakfast and second‑meal lunch prices to help stem ongoing lunch program losses; the change takes effect for the next school year as presented by the business office.
The Winchester Board of Education voted unanimously May 13 to raise school meal prices by 50 cents for specified categories after the business manager told the board the lunch program was operating at a loss.
Nancy, the business manager, recommended increasing student second‑meal breakfast to $2.50 and second‑meal lunch to $4.00 and raising staff/adult meal prices by 50 cents. "We are bleeding," she told the board, urging modest, incremental increases to align more closely with state reimbursement levels.
Board members asked follow‑up questions about the community eligibility provision (which provides free first breakfast and lunch to students under that federal program) and whether raising second‑meal prices would affect eligibility or the district's participation. The business manager said the community eligibility provision is a five‑year arrangement and that raising paid‑meal prices for second meals would not immediately affect the free‑meal status provided under that federal program.
After a brief discussion about how relatively few students purchase second meals and how adult meal price increases would be real revenue increases for the district, a motion to adopt the proposed price changes passed unanimously; vote counts recorded the decision as 9‑0.
The board directed the business office to implement the change and update parents and staff on the pricing adjustments; no changes to free‑meal eligibility or the community‑eligibility participation were announced at the meeting.
