It just got more expensive to buy breakfast and lunch in Sarasota County public schools, after the district approved a price hike of around 20% for the coming school year due to higher costs of food and labor.
The move means that school lunch will rise to $3.75 in middle and high school and $3.25 in elementary, up from between $2.75 and $3.25 previously.
School breakfasts will cost $2.25, effective immediately, up from $1.50 or $2.00 before, depending on grade level.
The Sarasota school board approved the changes Tuesday in a unanimous vote, despite the pleas of current and former students who spoke of the shame and hardship it would bring.
"It is not just 75 cents. It is more. It is a promising education being ripped away from students because they cannot focus in school when they are starving," said Lillian Williamson, a sophomore at Booker High.
"Your argument is that the rise in prices is a necessary evil," said Kennedy Cole, also a sophomore at Booker, as he addressed the board.
"Where my concern is that if you have not exhausted just every single alternative, it's just evil."
Naomi Fleming, a student at State College of Florida, Collegiate School of Venice, said the change means a cash outlay of about $6 per day, per child.
"Or over $120 monthly, straining many family budgets, and that's assuming you only have one kid, and most people I know have a ton of siblings," she added.
Sebastian Martinez, a recent graduate of Booker, said he "went into debt because my family couldn't afford to pay for my lunch. A raise in school lunch prices would have made my situation harder."
While school board members acknowledged the hardship this could cause, they urged families to apply for free and reduced lunch.
Just over 51% of students in the district qualify for these programs, according to the district.
At a school board workshop in mid-July, the director of food and nutrition services, Sara Dan, said the price of food has risen 18% in the last year, while popular items have doubled since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Burritos in 2020, they cost around $39 a case. They now cost $85 a case. Pizza, one of our most popular items, whole grain, low fat cheese, has gone from $30 a case to almost $72 a case," Dan said.
"Also, Food and Nutrition Services employees have received in last school year a 4% increase in salaries plus a 19% increase in benefits cost for this current school year," she added.
Sarasota schools' chief operating officer Jody Dumas explained that the district's food service runs as a separate business, and isn't funded like other school programs.
"Food and nutrition services is 100% self-funded," Dumas said at the workshop.
"It's not funded from the general fund. It's not funded from the capital fund. It is based on revenue, and the revenue has to cover the cost of running the operation," he explained.
Board member Tom Edwards said the district is still working on creative alternatives to make school lunches more affordable.
"The best I can tell you is that there is a lot of work that's still going on and a lot of discussions that are still being had," Edwards said after Tuesday's vote.
About $35,000 in student school lunch debt from last school year was paid off by a Grace Community Church, according to the school board.
