Fork It Over, Kids; APS Raising Prices Slightly for School Meals

By AMY MILLER Journal Staff Writer

Albuquerque Public Schools students will pay more for lunch and breakfast when school starts in August. The price of an elementary school lunch will jump from $1.40 to $1.60. High school and middle school students will pay $1.75, up from $1.50. All students will pay $1 for breakfast, up from 75 cents for elementary students. The Albuquerque school board on Wednesday approved the increases, the first in more than 10 years. Some parents might complain, officials said, but because of rising food, transportation and employee costs, the school district’s food services department had run out of money. The board approved transferring $2.2 million from the school district’s operating budget to help cover the department’s expenses. Over the past eight years, food costs have risen 17 percent and employee costs 42 percent, APS officials said. The higher meal prices will add about $700,000 to the department’s budget, they estimated. School meals are still a good value for parents, said Mary Swift, director of food and nutrition services for Albuquerque Public Schools. Schools in cities such as Santa Fe, Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tenn., charge as much as $2 for a school lunch, she said. Officials said they aren’t relying on higher prices alone to help the department become self-sufficient.

The department is also reducing overhead and overtime expenses to slash more than $1 million in costs.

An audit of the department will find other ways to save money too, officials said. It should be completed in about a month.

"The department has looked at all kinds of strategies," said associate superintendent Susie Peck.

The department will also work to sell more meals, and board member Mary Lee Martin suggested asking students what they need and want.

"Ask the students how we can better serve them," she said.

Students who qualify for free and reduced meals will be strongly encouraged to sign up for the federal program, which reimburses school districts for some food costs.

School board members said they understood the need for the increases, but administrators should have notified them sooner that the food services department was in financial straits.

"We should have never, ever gotten in this situation," board member Robert Lucero said.

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