CITIZEN JOURNALISM: Cost of healthier school meals rising

The 2009 School Nutrition Operations Report by the School Nutrition Association found that nearly all school districts offer fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and salad bars or prepackaged salads to students. It also found that while school authorities are working hard to broaden the variety of healthy foods, they are struggling to manage the cost of enhancements.

The average cost to prepare and serve a school lunch that meets federal nutritional standards at the start of last school was $2.92, but the federal reimbursement rate for that “free” lunch is only $2.68 for this school year, according to the association, a nonprofit that represents more than 55,000 members who provide the free and no-cost school meals to needy students.

The group also found in a survey that more than half of school districts expect to face rising costs for food, supplies, labor, gas and transportation.

In Alexandria, the switch to whole-grain buns for sandwiches cost the 12,000 student districts nearly $75,000. Last year, Ohio’s Beavercreek schools, which have an enrollment of 8,000, served 87,000 packages of apple slices at a cost of 30 cents a serving. The apple slices are a more popular and more nutritious choice than canned applesauce, but they are more than double the price, and they cost the schools about $15,000 more than the canned applesauce. In Florida, the Polk County public schools pay 11 cents a serving for canned green beans, while fresh green beans cost 17 cents a serving. Multiply the 6-cent difference by 92,000 students, and schools spend an additional $5,520 on a side dish for one school day.

Source: School Nutrition Association