Howard County school prices are staying put for now, but only after the county adopted increases that raised the cost of meals by 75 cents since 2005. Baltimore County school officials say they won't be considering meal prices until summer. School officials in Baltimore City, where nearly nine out of 10 meals go to low-income students, say they're looking to trim costs rather than raise prices. Among the options: buying their own trucks to cut food transportation costs.
The price increases affect only students who pay the full, though subsidized, price for lunch. School nutrition officials said they're concerned about the squeeze middle-class families will feel, and Anne Arundel is bracing for a 3 percent drop in the 5 million lunches a year that it serves as a result of the raise just approved.
Low-income families who qualify for reduced-price or free lunches will not be affected. In Anne Arundel, that's two-thirds of the 6,000 breakfasts served daily and about two-fifths of the 32,000 daily lunches.
"It just feels like everything's going up," said Anita Owens, president of the Anne Arundel Council of PTAs. "I think parents are just going to start packing more lunches, making more sandwiches because we're getting hit at the gas pump, at the grocery store. It's hard all around."
Economists and other experts say that grain shortages have been aggravated by record-high oil prices, which have driven a push for ethanol, a biofuel made from large quantities of corn. Meanwhile, demand for wheat has jumped as it is substituted for less-available corn.
And that demand means that suppliers have warned Anne Arundel school officials that the whole-wheat muffins and cinnamon rolls that cost the district 30 cents apiece this school year are likely to cost about 50 cents each next year. Officials say they aren't sure how they'll deal with that - though the response in Broward County, Fla., has been to replace the wheat baked goods with ones made from cheaper white flour.
Local officials say they're squeezed because federal funding to keep meal costs low hasn't kept pace with food prices - going up just 3 percent in the past year while bread and milk have soared 12 and 17 percent, respectively.
The U.S. Agriculture Department gives schools $2.47 per lunch to serve free meals to children from needy families, up from $2.40 last year, according to the agency's Web site. Yet the average lunch costs schools $2.70 to $3.10 to produce, says the School Nutrition Association.
