Lunch: A lot of lettuce

Ottawa students next school year will get a math lesson during breakfast and lunch — increased food and fuel expenses equal higher meal prices.

Ottawa school board members Monday night approved a 15-cent increase for school meals and a 5-cent increase for milk.

That means breakfast at elementary schools will be $1.20 and lunch will be $2. Breakfast at Ottawa Middle School and Ottawa High School will cost $1.25, and lunch will cost $2.10.

Milk prices will increase to 35 cents for all schools.

Board members also approved an amended food services budget for this year with an $80,000 increase, from $890,481 to $970,481. Superintendent Dean Katt said previously that the increase was caused by increasing food and fuel costs.

He said he didn’t know what next school year’s food service budget would be, but he anticipated it increasing by about 15 to 20 percent.

“We’re still working on it,” he said.

Katt said the meal price increases will help offset increased expenses by less than $30,000.

He said the district really can’t do anything other than budget more, further increase prices or wait for more reimbursements from state and federal governments — an unlikely prospect.

Katt said other school districts are increasing their meal prices by 25 cents, but he didn’t want to go that far.

“When you’re paying that for a meal as a parent, it adds up,” he said. “We didn’t want to discourage people from eating lunches.”

He said he hopes more people who qualify will take advantage of the district’s free and reduced meal program. He said numbers of children who sign up drop off at the middle school level and even more at the high school level, presumably because families are too proud to ask for assistance.

“The way the economy is going, people are going to be strapped,” he said.

Teresa Powers, food service authorized representative for the district who approves applications for free and reduced meals, said the application process is discreet.

But that doesn’t mean everyone who qualifies will apply, she said.

“There’s people who qualify that, for whatever reason, don’t come in,” she said. “Some it doesn’t bother, but some it does.”

Powers said she’ll start taking applications after the first of July and will be open in the evenings and during enrollments. For more information about the program, call Powers at (785) 229-8010.

“We’re going to start early and get them in,” she said, adding that she hoped more people would apply in light of increasing food and gas prices.

“I think people are thinking about it.”

Herald staff writer Jodie Garcia can be e-mailed at jgarcia@ottawaherald.com.