Lunch Prices Rising in Nazareth Area School District

Written by Jack Tobias

Lunch prices in the Nazareth Area School District are going up for the upcoming school year.

There will be two price increases – a 25-cent increase as of Aug. 1 and another 25-cent increase on Jan. 15.

At the elementary schools and the intermediate school, that means lunch will cost $2.20 at the beginning of the school year and $2.45 in mid-January.

At the middle school and high school, the price will be $2.45 at the beginning of the school year and $2.70 in mid-January.

The a la carte price for milk will rise 10 cents to 60 cents at the beginning of the school year and will not change throughout the school year.

The school board approved the higher prices Monday night and heard superintendent Dennis Riker explain that the increases are being driven by a combination of larger required portions for fruit and vegetables and higher costs for the kinds of food that must be served.

Riker said the alternative to higher lunch prices would be draining the district’s self-sustaining food service budget -- something that eventually would force the district to pay for food service out of the general budget.

Riker distributed a detailed report that shows how such factors as required increases in portion sizes have increased costs.

The report also includes a “waste audit” that lists large amounts of food being wasted throughout the district, although it also shows that overall less fruit and vegetables were wasted this past spring than in fall 2012.

”Overall, all buildings except Bushkill have reduced the waste of fruits and vegetables from fall 2012 to spring 2013,” Riker writes in the report. “District-wide, eaten vegetable consumption has increased 5 percent over the school year, and eaten fruit consumption has increased 10 percent over the school year.”

The subject of wasted food came up at a board meeting in October 2012, when Riker called the waste “a tragedy, sinful.”

Bushkill Elementary, the report notes, has the highest percentage of fruit and vegetables being discarded daily at 54 percent. The high school has the lowest daily discarded percentage at 26 percent.

As for the larger required portions, the report says that the required amount of fruit and vegetables combined for all grades in 2011-2012 was one-half to three-quarters of a cup.

In 2012-2013, that increased to a half-cup of fruit and three-quarters of a cup of vegetables for grades K through eight and one cup of fruit and one cup of vegetables for grades nine through 12.

Other charts rank the lunch prices of area school districts in 2012-2013. Among secondary schools, Nazareth ranked 16th out of 25 districts. For middle schools/junior high schools, it ranked 13th out of 21 districts. For elementary and intermediate schools, it ranked 15th out of 21 districts.

Nazareth ranked last among for the percentage of students in 21 districts getting free and reduced-price lunches, at 12.8 percent. The Allentown School District had the highest percentage at 85 percent.