Price of school lunches likely to rise

Student lunch prices are expected to go up by 25 cents in the fall to $2.75 for high-schoolers and to $2.50 for elementary and intermediate students.

The move would raise an additional $1.7 million a year for the food services branch and mark the first price hike in four years.

Department of Education officials cited increases in food and labor costs, which have pushed up meal expenses by more than 17 percent in the last five years.

"We have not had a school price increase since 2011. Obviously, it’s not the DOE’s desire, but given our statutory requirements and our fiscal responsibility, we feel like it’s the time to ask for an increase," Dann Carlson, the department’s assistant superintendent overseeing food services, told the Board of Education’s Finance Committee on Tuesday.

The "statutory requirements" Carlson cited refer to a 2009 state law that requires the DOE to set meal prices at a level "not less than half" the cost of preparing the meal.

The food services branch — which serves 107,000 lunches a day at 255 schools — is spending $5.51 to prepare each lunch this year. Elementary students pay $2.25 for lunch and high school students pay $2.50.

The department dialed back an increase it proposed last month that would have raised prices by 30 percent over three years. BOE Finance Chairman Brian De Lima deferred action on that plan at last month’s meeting and asked Carlson to come back with plans to reduce costs.

"We’re committed to trying to find efficiencies," Carlson said, noting technology upgrades made to better track and analyze trends. He said he plans to have a third-party review operations to find more efficiencies.

The Finance Committee unanimously approved the one-time increase, and the full board is expected to approve the recommendation at its next meeting.

The food service branch’s $105 million budget this year comes from a combination of state funding, revenues from students who pay full price, and reimbursements from the federal government for lunches served to low-income students.

Nearly 60 percent of lunches are free or served at a reduced price. The federal government reimburses the state up to $3.57 per free lunch served and up to $3.17 for each reduced-price lunch served. (Under federal income guidelines a family of four cannot earn more than $50,746 to receive the reduced rate, while a family of four earning $35,659 or less qualifies for free meals.)

Carlson said his office plans to aggressively pursue a higher federal reimbursement rate for Hawaii. Alaska, for example, receives $1.32 more than Hawaii for every free or reduced-price lunch served.

"The cost of food prepared at home for a family of four in Hawaii is 70 percent higher compared to Alaska. There’s a lot of proof out there that, again, just our food costs alone here in Hawaii is substantially different than others," Carlson said, adding that the department spends $10 million a year on milk.

Meanwhile, revenues from students paying full price — representing approximately one-third of lunches served — have dropped every year since the department’s last price increase. Revenues last year dropped by 10 percent to $23.3 million. A recent student survey at one Windward Oahu high school found only 35 percent of students were eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Food service staff say federal guidelines have altered the taste of food.

In order to be reimbursed by the National School Lunch Program, schools have to meet federal nutrition requirements that restrict calories, sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals and require schools to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

"That does take your palate some getting used to, if you transition to brown rice or to whole wheat, for example," said Dexter Kishida, a school food service supervisor. "There is a difference if you get a whole-grain chicken nugget versus a non-whole-grain chicken nugget. You can taste the difference."