Anne Arundel County students who eat breakfast at school may soon have to do without whole-grain cinnamon rolls. In Carroll County, school cafeterias are stretching their vegetable supply by making more soups. And in Montgomery County schools, tomatoes are being replaced in lunch salads by less-pricey carrots.
The global food shortage and the resulting spike in the cost of milk, grains and fresh fruits and vegetables are squeezing school lunchroom budgets in Maryland and across the nation.
A convergence of factors - a sharp rise in food prices not seen since the 1970s, climbing transportation costs as oil tops $120 a barrel and growing labor costs - has cash-strapped schools doing some creative penny-pinching and raising meal prices.
Anne Arundel County school board members voted yesterday to raise school lunch and breakfast prices next school year by 25 cents and charge 5 cents more for a half-pint of milk. It's the first price increase the county has adopted for lunches in three years. School officials said costs for food have increased 15.5 percent in that time.
Even with pricier lunches, school nutrition officials in the 74,000-student Anne Arundel school system warned that they will face a $1 million deficit next year and will likely be forced to raise prices again next spring.
"We hope that by raising prices in small increments, it won't be as hard on families," said Jodi Risse, supervisor for food and nutrition services in Anne Arundel County. "We don't want to see a drop in participation and have Mom and Dad packing peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches because they can't afford to pay for school lunch any more."
The pinch caused by higher fuel prices, transportation surcharges and rising costs for bread and milk caused Harford County schools to raise lunch prices this school year by 20 cents.
Carroll County schools are spending $107,000 more on food this year than last and are considering a 25- to 50-cent increase to cover rising food transportation costs coupled with a sharp drop in meal purchases. Gwen Ruskey, food service accountant for Carroll schools, said the county has seen its meal-buyers drop by 100 students a month since November. On top of that, she's hearing from food suppliers that they're upping their fuel surcharges to the district from $8 to $14.
"With everything that's been happening, it's been extremely hard on us," she said.
