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District presents 10-cent paid-meal price increase to board; no vote tonight
Summary
Food service staff told the board Lawrence Public Schools will propose a 10¢ increase for paid student meals at the next meeting to reduce a structural shortfall in the food service fund; the presentation explained federal paid lunch equity requirements, current reimbursement levels and alternatives to a price increase.
Julie Henry, director of Nutrition and Wellness, told the board on June 9 that the district will recommend a 10¢ increase in paid meal prices (elementary, middle and high schools, and adult meals) at an upcoming meeting to move the district closer to federal paid lunch equity guidance and to halt an ongoing deficit in the food service fund.
Henry said the USDA’s paid-lunch-equity guidance indicates a weighted average paid lunch price of $4.01 for the coming year; Lawrence’s current weighted average paid price is $3.08. She said the district’s “all-in” cost to produce a lunch is about $4.75 (food, labor, insurance, supplies). Free-meal reimbursement this past year averaged $4.86; reduced reimbursement averaged $4.46 (with students paying 40¢); federal/state reimbursement for paid meals is roughly $0.85. Henry said the district’s revenue from paid meals currently averages $3.39, leaving a shortfall of approximately $0.82 per paid lunch served.
“It means we’re losing 82¢ on every meal that we serve to a paid student,” Henry said, and that sustained losses would require a transfer from the district’s general fund to keep the food service program operating. She said the 10¢ increase proposal would raise the district’s straight average lunch price toward $3.25 (still below the $4.01 USDA example), and that free and reduced prices would not change.
Henry and CFO Cindy Frick described the legal and accounting context: the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 established paid-lunch-equity requirements; the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 and Kansas cash-basis accounting complicate waiver and transfer considerations for Kansas districts. Frick said capital outlay funds cannot be used to cover food-service deficits; any district offset would need to come from the general fund or supplemental general fund.
Board members and administrators discussed other levers besides price — menu changes, a la carte sales, kitchen staffing and possible central production models — and Henry said the department will continue to evaluate costs and other revenue sources. The board did not vote; the superintendent’s office said the price change will be brought for a future vote and that federal reimbursement rates and next-year food costs (not yet released) may affect final numbers.
