New rates not effective until July

Parents of students in the Sedro-Woolley School District can expect to see an increase in the price of school meals next school year.

School Board members voted last week to raise the cost of breakfast and lunch by 25 cents and milk by 10 cents.

Currently, the price of lunch is $2.25 at the elementary level and $2.50 at the high school. Breakfast costs $1.25 at the elementary level and $1.50 at the high school.

The school district has budgeted $1.5 million for food services for the 2008/2009 school year.

“Never before have we budgeted for a food increase like we have this year,” said Amy Grizzel, director of food services for the Sedro-Woolley School District.

Food services is a self-sustaining operation with a goal to break even, she said.

A sharp rise in the price of food and labor costs and a push for healthier meals that include fruits, vegetables and whole grains contribute to the increase, she said in a presentation to the school board on May 28.

Providing students with nutritious meals is more expensive, Grizzel said. Food services is planning to provide such healthy meals to its students but doing so would cost more, she said.

Grizzel said she has noticed that the federal reimbursement rates have not kept up with the rising costs of food, labor and healthier meals, but that the slow rates are not a direct reason for the increasing cost of meals, she said.

The federal reimbursement rate for the following school year was undetermined at the time of printing, but only rose by 3 percent for the 2007/2008 school year, Grizzel said.

“Federal reimbursement rates are not increasing as much as food (prices) are increasing,” she said.

School Board Member Rich Weyrich said he was concerned about voting to increase meal prices without knowing what federal reimbursement rates will be next school year, and was curious if the district’s food services participated in a program that helped reduce the price of food purchased by the district.

Grizzel said school district officials have arranged for the food services budget to break even by closely examining the actual number of sales in the school district.

For the 2007/2008 school year, the school district was reimbursed $2.47 for meals served to students who qualified for free meals, $2.07 for meals served to students who qualified for reduced meals and 23 cents per meal for students who do not qualify for benefits.

“Reimbursements allow us to continue operating, otherwise we would be relying on the school district,” she said in an interview last month.

About 422,000 meals are served each school year, said Stewart Mhyre, school district executive director of business and operations, in an interview.

Grizzel explained to the School Board that the school district is a member of a large purchasing cooperative that includes school districts along the Interstate 5 corridor — including Seattle, Kent and Tacoma school districts.

Even with the large purchasing power of the cooperative, the school district is budgeting for the large increase, Grizzel said. The district is currently on its own for purchasing milk.

With the ever-growing cost of living expenses and the increased meal prices, Grizzel said last month she expects to see an increase in students enrolled in the free/reduced meal program.

About 40 percent of students in the entire school district are currently enrolled in the program, she said. Mary Purcell and Central elementary schools hold the largest percentage of students enrolled per building.

The school district utilizes an anonymous procedure for enrolling students into the free/reduced lunch program by mailing the application to families in the summer, which can be returned to the school district office to retain anonymity within the schools, Grizzel said. Each students’ information is retained in the computers and is not shown to other students.

For more information, call 360-855-3515.