Lunch prices will rise by 10 cents next school year, the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education has decided, but prices in MPS cafeterias still will be lower than most of the other Monroe County districts are this school year.

     Even with the adjustment, elementary lunch prices will be the lowest in Monroe County in the public school districts.  After the adjustment, secondary lunches still will be lower priced at Monroe than at four regional districts were this year. 

     For the 2014-15 school year, hot lunch prices were $1.95 per lunch for elementary and $2.70 for secondary grades 7-12.  Those prices will be adjusted to $2.05 and $2.80, respectively, next school year.  The 10-cent per lunch adjustment equates to $16.80 annually if a child were to purchase hot lunch at the school cafeteria every day of the nine-month school year.

     Katherine Eighmey, director of Finance, Monroe Public Schools said that the Federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 requires school food providers to adjust lunch prices annually based on an averaging formula provided in the act,meaning that the district was required to increase the lunch prices.  Monroe’s “weighted” average would be $2.41 per lunch, she said, based on the percentage of lunches for elementary students and secondary students.