| 6/30/2008 12:21:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | School lunch prices raised
Michael Wilcox
Review staff
If paying for gasoline doesn't hurt your budget this fall, paying for lunch just might.
School districts around the area are increasing the price of lunches in response to rising food costs.
At its June 23 meeting, the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan School Board decided to hike lunch prices 10 cents. Next fall elementary schools' hot lunches will now be $2.20, and the middle schools and Henry Sibley High School will charge $2.60.
The Inver Grove Heights School Board has raised lunch prices as well. All the district's schools will be charging 15 cents more in 2008-09. Elementary lunches rose to $1.65, middle-school lunches to $1.75 and high-school lunches to $1.80.
This is the first time in nine years that District 199 has raised its prices, said Business Manager Bruce Rimstad.
Carl Colmark, director of business services at District 197, said his district has faced a 23 percent increase in food prices in the last several months and much of it is related to higher fuel costs.
Other than raising the price of lunches, "there really isn't a better way to do it," he said. "If we were going to try to keep lunch-ticket prices the same in light of rising food and supply costs, we would have to look at reducing the number of cooks and servers throughout the district, and they've been reduced so many times in the last decade that I'm not sure they could get their work done."
With about 170 school days in a year, the increase will mean an extra $17 per year for each child purchasing school lunches in the West St. Paul district.
So far, South St. Paul School District is bucking the trend. It has decided not to increase its cafeteria prices for next year, despite rising food bills.
South St. Paul administrators say their district is able to absorb the higher prices and not pass them on to families because there is money leftover in its budget.
Around the metro, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale schools will raise their prices by 10 cents to offset the increasing cost of food, fuel, supplies and labor. Elementary-school lunches will cost $2.35 and secondary lunches $2.60.
"Fuel prices are, of course affecting more than fuel," said Director of Business Services Dennis Sullivan. "Ten cents in light of everything is a relatively modest increase."
A combination of factors has driven up food prices around the world. Companies are paying more for diesel fuel to transport food. Burgeoning economies in Third World countries are increasing demands for food. Ethanol production, which relies on corn, is diverting some of the grain away from the food supply. And catastrophic weather events, such as the spring floods in the Midwest, have disrupted crop production.
Food cooperative
The West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan, Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul districts participate in the Minnesota School Food Buying Group, a collaborative of school districts that came together several years ago to help curb the cost of buying food.
Working through the Anoka-Hennepin district, the group purchases food in bulk to get discounts.
More than 60 districts have joined the consortium. They deal directly with producers, who compete with each other to offer the best prices ... and the schools reap the benefits.
Michael Wilcox can be reached at southwest@lillienews.com or 651-748-7815.
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