Trustees unanimously approved the increase for meal prices for the upcoming school year at a May 12 meeting. According to district documents, there will be no impact to the prices of reduced-price meal rates for student breakfasts and lunches.
The details
The last increase to student lunch prices came in the 2022-23 school year when the district raised them by 10 cents, per district documents. Similarly, the price for a student breakfast has remained unchanged at $1.35 since the 2020-21 school year.
Increases for the student breakfast prices no longer reflect the current costs for preparing the meals, according to district documents. With the approval, LISD will increase all meal prices for students and adults by 30 cents.
Per district documents, the new meal prices will be:
- $1.65 for all student breakfasts.
- $3.15 for all elementary student lunches.
- $3.40 for all secondary student lunches.
- $2.85 for adult breakfasts.
- $4.50 for adult lunches.
Diving deeper
LISD is also required to meet with federal regulations that ensure assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture do not subsidize the full-price meal program. The district uses the Paid Lunch Equity tool from the department to help determine meal prices.
The district’s meal prices for the 2024-25 school year guidelines were 89 cents below equity guidelines, per district documents.
Part of the reason LISD did not increase meal prices for the 2024-25 school year was because of efforts to spend excess fund balance from the child nutrition fund, LISD’s Child Nutrition Program Administrator Kim Stafford said at a May 5 work session. Projected revenue gains of around $600,000 will be offset by expected increases to staff compensation and higher operational costs, Stafford added.
What’s next?
The new LISD meal prices will take effect for the 2025-26 school year.
