BCS lunch prices going up

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, July 20, 2016

It will now cost a bit more for school lunches at any Brewton City School lunchroom.

Monday, the board voted to impose a 10-cent price increase for meals served at each of the system’s three schools.

“Systems participating in the National School Lunch Program are required to ensure that sufficient funds are provided for meals served to students not eligible for free or reduced price meals,” said Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Varner. “Systems must annually review their meal prices and use the designated calculations to make adjustments.”

Systems that charged less than $2.78, on a weighted average, for lunches are required to adjust the weighted average lunch price, Varner said. The amount per meal increase is calculated using 2 percent rate increase plus the Consumer Price Index, which is set at 2.97 percent, totaling 4.97 percent, he said.

“The increase can then be rounded down to the nearest $.05, which in our case was $2.35 for a full price student lunch,” he said.

The increase means the average family will now pay $11.75 per week per child for regular priced lunch, while the faculty lunch price will increase to $2.85 and visitor lunch price to $3.60.

The reduced price lunch cost remains unchanged at 40-cents per day, Varner said.