Published: September 03, 2008 05:42 pm      

SCHOOLS: Costly commodities hit the lunch room

Districts nationwide are raising lunch prices as costs go up

Gas pumps, grocery stores and now add school cafeterias to the list.

Food prices rose nearly 5 percent last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it was only a matter of time before school cafeterias started passing along the increases.

Now, a handful of school districts across Niagara County — and the country — are raising their lunch prices for the new school year anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cents. Delivery fees and commodity costs for staples like bread, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables are on the rise, but are also impossible to avoid.

“There are certain (government) mandates we have to meet,” said Doloros Stinson, school lunch manager for the Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District. “We still have to serve a fruit and vegetable. We’re told we have to give the children 2 ounces of meat. We have to give them a serving of bread. We have to give them milk. Those are the components of a school lunch.”

In Niagara-Wheatfield, the school board raised prices by 25 cents for breakfast and secondary lunch and 20 cents for elementary lunch last month to push back against ballooning costs.

Some of the worst increases are coming from disposable items used in every cafeteria across the country. Stinson learned a few weeks ago napkins would cost $3 more per case than they did last year. Trash bags would cost $1 more per case.

In the Niagara Falls School District, it’s the same problem. Supplies are costing more and this year, suppliers have started setting minimum orders — unless the district buys a certain amount of product, the companies won’t deliver goods to individual schools, said food service administrator Renzo Polato.

“To give you an idea, we bid for products to various companies,” Polato said. “A lot of the companies who won the bid are calling us back saying they can’t honor it because their suppliers raised their prices. So we’ve got to start looking all over again.”

Some added perspective: Since 2006, whole milk has gone up 67 cents per gallon, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Flour is up 9 cents per pound. Chicken is up 10 cents per pound. Egg prices jumped 60 percent from a year ago, pasta products 30 percent, and fruits and vegetables 20 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Niagara Falls, which feeds 5,000 students everyday, will not be raising school lunch prices this year. Instead, faced with a cafeteria fund deficit of more than $200,000, the district cut back personnel costs by eliminating 5-hour positions entitled to certain benefits and creating 3-hour shifts. In all, about a dozen workers saw their jobs scaled back.

“Our kids can’t afford to pay more,” said Superintendent Carmen Granto. “... For a lot of our kids, it’s the healthiest meal they get all day. We didn’t want to put the cost on the backs of kids.”

The Lewiston-Porter Central School District is holding the line on lunch prices too, but it’s still a concern, said Interim Superintendent Don Rappold. The district may start offering some “a la carte” items to increase revenue and offset costs.

Lew-Port, unlike Niagara-Wheatfield and Niagara Falls, contracts its school lunch program out to food service giant Sodexho. The company did not return calls to the Gazette seeking comment.

One thing is clear: Food costs aren’t likely to go down anytime soon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects food prices will rise another 5 percent this year. How that will affect school lunch programs in the future will remain to be seen.

As Polato put it: “You’ve got to be magician sometimes.”