Hard math for school meals: Schools work to keep meal costs down as food costs rise

Aug. 6—WAPAKONETA — Sticker shock in the grocery store is nothing new to families throughout the region. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the costs of many food staples have continued to rise, including ground beef prices in the Midwest up 8.4 percent compared to prices in June 2023, bread costs up 11.2 percent and eggs up 26.1 percent over the same time frame. That shock felt by individual families is also felt by other food shoppers, including schools looking to procure food for cafeteria meals.

As schools prepare to start a new school year later this month, districts are having to carefully examine how to mitigate costs, including food service, while still adhering to state and federal standards. For food service departments, those standards come down from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has enacted new nutrition standards that will be implemented over time, including restrictions on sugar and sodium intake. Meeting those requirements amidst inflation is forcing districts to consider increasing meal costs for students.

This does not apply to Lima schools, as the district is implementing the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs. This allows the district to provide free breakfast and lunch meals to all students regardless of income level.

Wapakoneta City schools made the decision to increase meal costs for this upcoming school year, with costs set to increase from $2.80 to $2.90 at the elementary level, $2.90 to $3 for middle schoolers and $3 to $3.25 for high school students. Assistance is still available at all districts for low-income families to help them receive cafeteria meals at no cost.

"At the high school, they get the most variety and the largest portions," Food Service Supervisor Lori McKean said, explaining the higher price increase at the high school level. "We do serve breakfast free to all students, regardless of their status. We just feel it's a good start for them."

The increase was finally necessary, McKean said, in order to accommodate both higher food costs and negotiated raises to help keep the cafeteria competitive when it came to attracting workers.

"I feel we now have good, competitive wages with the rest of the school staff and community," she said.

For Ottawa-Glandorf Cafeteria Supervisor Colleen Halker, increasing meal costs has not yet come into the equation, with prices staying at $2.50 for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and $2.75 for the higher grades. Just like Wapakoneta, however, Ottawa-Glandorf is feeling the strain of increased costs, as well.

"It's something we are visiting, for sure," she said. "If we do raise prices, we won't raise it much, for sure, but we haven't raised our lunch prices in about six years, so we're going to have to move some stuff around."

One way that districts have been able to help keep costs as low as possible is through purchasing cooperatives like the Southwestern Ohio Educational Purchasing Council, which includes several hundred districts throughout the state aggregating together to bid on needed supplies, including food. Wapakoneta schools has been able to procure supplies through this organization, along with Apollo Career Center, Elida, Lima, St. Marys and Waynesfield schools. This is especially needed since districts cannot simply buy the least expensive food available, since they must ensure all food meets required nutrition standards.

"It's not like I can say, 'This bread is the cheapest,'" McKean said. "It is whole grain? Is it low sodium? Does it have a CN label? There are many hoops we have to jump through for the food to make sure it meets all the requirements."

Ottawa-Glandorf has also been able to take advantage of aggregate bidding, and Halker said the district has been able to take advantage of commodity funds from the USDA to help offset the higher food costs to a point. For Halker, it is still a balancing act, she said, trying to keep costs down while still ensuring that the healthiest food possible is available and that the different dietary needs of students are being met.

"We're feeding three-fourths of the kids lunch every day, if not more," she said.

About 70 percent of Wapakoneta students utilize the food service program, McKean said, and keeping that number requires not only quality food options but also the hard work of her staff, both in preparation and in customer service.

"We're on a shoestring [budget], and our main thing is you've got to get that participation," she said. "If you put this food out and the kids aren't eating, you're not going to get anywhere. I tell my ladies we need at least 70 percent participation to pay the bills."

No matter the obstacles districts may face when it comes to food prices, the important thing is being there for the students and giving them the best educational experience possible, Halker said.

"We enjoy seeing [the students] every day, and that's why we do what we do," she said. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't."