April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
School lunch prices rising 10 cents
Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. Board members unanimously approved a 10-cent increase during a meeting Tuesday that doubled as a state-mandated public hearing for the district's proposed 2016 budget.
No one spoke for or against the budget, an $8.73 million proposal that will have an unknown effect on residents' property taxes. However, the impact of the 10-cent lunch price increase is more clear.
On Jan. 1, the cost of each lunch will rise from $2.05 to 2.15 at Hope Elementary School, and from $2.20 to $2.30 at Hauser Jr./Sr. High School, said Lisa Garrison, the district's food service director. She said the increase should have happened at the beginning of the school year, but she got busy with other things and remembered to ask the school board for it only when she filed federal paperwork.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been requiring schools to charge progressively more for their lunches since July 2012, when the federal agency implemented its Equity in School Lunch Pricing Program. The goal of that program is to bring the amount paying students pay into alignment with the amount the federal government pays for economically disadvantaged students to eat for free.
The Flat Rock-Hawcreek school district isn't there yet. Garrison said that although the incremental increases began three years ago, they will need to continue annually until the cost is $2.70 at both schools.
Breakfast prices are not affected.[[In-content Ad]]
