Students get taste of higher lunch prices

Students in local school districts are paying more for their snacks and meals this fall as the result of escalating food costs nationwide.

Upward pressure on breakfast and lunch prices also has come from the government, which requires that cafeteria food be nutritional and, in some cities, that the food packaging be environmentally friendly.

Simi Valley Unified School District raised its breakfast prices for the first time since 2001 and upped its elementary school lunch prices for the first time since 2003.

Lunch for an elementary student costs $2.50 this year, an increase of 50 cents per meal. The change puts Simi Valley closer in price to school districts in Moorpark ($2.50), Las Virgenes ($3) and Conejo Valley ($3.25).

"We work as any hospitality or restaurant organization. We adjust prices based on costs," said Joe Cooke, Conejo's director of nutrition.

Oak Park students pay the most for the on-campus food.

Lunches in the school district's three elementary schools increased 75 cents, from $3.50 to $4.25. At the middle school and high school the price tag jumped from $4 to $4.75. Oak Park's snack food increased almost 40 percent, to $2.75 per item.

"Every food service looks for the cheapest food they can possible buy, but you go to the grocery store and pay more; we have to pay more, too," said Laurel Goins, child nutrition director for Oak Park schools.

Students are being asked to pay more because the quality of the food is better. Oak Park pushed for more natural foods in response to a state mandate requiring public schools to offer healthier options such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

"We took it a step further by saying that we don't want to serve our kids artificial chemicals like artificial strawberry flavor," Goins said. "There are not as many organic choices as I had hoped to make available; however OPUSD has made considerable progress towards offering only natural food."

Some parents prefer the old food, and old prices.

"It was bad enough when the lunch price rose to $3.50 because everything was organic. Now that it's jumped up to $4.25 I will not allow my son to buy lunch at school," said one elementary school mother, wishing to remain anonymous.

Left with a bad taste

At the Pleasant Valley Unified School District in Camarillo, Suzanne Kitchens cast the only dissenting vote in the school board's decision to raise the prices of breakfast, lunch and milk.

"I just think it's too much too quickly," Kitchens said. "I'm concerned with what will happen with such a large jump."

Breakfast in the Pleasant Valley schools jumped 60 percent, from $1.25 to $2. Lunch will cost $3.50, up from $2.50, and milk went up from 25 cents to 50 cents.

The district cited the rising cost of food and fuel—and a pay and benefits increase it recently gave to employees—as the reasons for the price hike.

"(The) price increase was the result of a very difficult economy," said Waleska Cannon, director of child nutrition in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, where middle school and high school lunches rose from $3.50 to $4.

Cannon said although some students habitually discard the healthy components, such as milk and vegetables, the meals cannot be sold a la carte and at a lower price. The government's recipe

Prices are also affected by the amount of state and federal reimbursement that a school district receives.

At Moorpark Unified School District, about 30 percent of all students receive free or reduced price lunches. For a $2.50 meal, students pay 40 cents and the federal government reimburses the school district $2.10. Oak Park, on the other hand, has fewer students on free and reduced lunch meal plans, which translates into less outside funding.

Approximately 450 students buy breakfast in the Moorpark schools. The cost is $1.25 for elementary students and $1.50 for middle and high school students and includes items such as bagels, waffles, fruit, juice, and milk.

"If you compare it to a Happy Meal, this is a bargain," said Camille Plante, Moorpark's director of child nutrition services.

The school district did not raise this year's prices.

The arm of government also played a role in the prices of food at Calabasas schools. A new city ordinance banned the use of Styrofoam products, requiring more expensive replacement packaging to be used. Las Virgenes voted to apply the ordinance throughout the school district.

"We strive to maintain prices at a level that covers our costs and enables us to use environmentally friendly materials," said Karen Kimmel, Las Virgenes schools chief business officer.

Relentless inflation

For all school districts, the rising cost of food has been unavoidable.

Pleasant Valley has no cooking kitchens but offers warmed up food prepared by Preferred Meals. While the school district prices have remained mostly unchanged, the vendor's prices have risen steadily, according to Assistant Superintendent Linda Bekeny.

Meanwhile, parents cope the best they can.

At Oak Park, Lena Tucker's ninth-grade son Michael no longer wants to buy lunch at the high school, but her sixth-grade son, Brandon, loves the middle school's salad bar and variety of foods offered at snack and lunch.

Although she's not happy with the price increase, Tucker gives Brandon $5 each day to buy food at school.

"Brandon did say that $5 a day wasn't enough, so I told him he needs to supplement it with items at home," Tucker said.

Goins said she's noticed a decrease in the number of Oak Park students purchasing lunch this year, which she said could be due to declining enrollment as well as the higher prices.

"People are just watching their money. Things have gone up for everything," Goins said.

Acorn reporters Sophia Fischer, Michelle Knight, Stephanie Bertholdo, Joann Groff and Eliav Appelbaum contributed to this story.