SPS ends year with $119K in unpaid school lunches, prices go up slightly for 2023-24

The Springfield district will charge more for school meals this year to offset higher food and staffing costs.

No change is expected for the nearly 54% of students who qualify for free or reduced price meals but the amount for full-pay meals will go up by 10 cents.

Elementary students will pay $3.05 for lunch and middle and high school students will pay $3.30. The full-pay cost for breakfast will be $1.70 for K-12.

"They typically go up a little bit each year," said Kim Keller, general manager of student nutrition. "We are raising them 10 cents for breakfast and lunch for elementary and secondary students."

The annual increase is based on a state formula called the paid lunch equity tool. It computes the cost of food and staffing compared to the federal reimbursement level for free, reduced and paid meals and what the paid meal fees are expected to generate.

Keller said the goal is to break even or cover costs. "Otherwise the district ends up having to pay the gap to cover those costs and we don't want that."

Students who qualify for reduced-price meals will still pay 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch — amounts that have remained the same for years.

The proposed changes went to the school board Tuesday for approval.

The district is tentatively increasing the cost of school meals for lunch typically eaten by employees or parents. They will now pay $2.50 for breakfast, an increase of 5 cents, and $4.50 for lunch, an increase of 45 cents.

Keller said that amount may have to be tweaked slightly once final guidelines come out this summer.

The new prices are expected to generate less than $70,000 in additional revenue during the 2023-24 year, based on the number of meals purchased in prior years.

"That doesn't go very far in our world, especially with food prices," Keller said. "And our labor is going up this year because we were able to get our folks raises."

This past year, the district received a federal lunch reimbursement of $4.35 for students who qualified for free meals, $3.95 for students who qualified for reduced meals, and 79 cents for students who were considered "full pay" or not free or reduced.

Springfield served 1,984,692 lunches and 1,328,200 breakfasts in the past year.

SPS ended year with $119K in unpaid school meals

Under a federal waiver, school meals were free during much of the pandemic. Missouri schools started to charge again in summer 2022.

The district experienced a spike in school lunch and breakfast fees that were charged but went unpaid this year.

Coming off several years of free meals for all, the district started the 2022-23 school year with just $1,000 in unpaid lunch fees — from the summer 2022 program — and ended with $119,000.

Keller said the amount did not reflect the $19,000 in donations that people had made to cover lunch costs for other families this past year.

She said the amount of unpaid lunch balances was higher than usual.

"The highest I can remember in the past was around $83,000 or $85,000," she said. "You have to remember the last three years, these kiddos did not have to pay for meals. They are used to getting them for free."

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Keller said she hopes more families will fill out the application for free or reduced price school meals, which will be available in mid-July and can be filled out online.

She said in addition to reducing the cost of school meals, eligible families can qualify for other assistance and the district receives federal funding based, in part, on that number.

"It affects a lot of different things," Keller said. "We do encourage families to fill that form out online."

Nearly 54% of students in the district qualified for free and reduced price meals in the past year.

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to criley@news-leader.com.