The Iberia Parish School Board approved an incremental increase of school lunch prices over a three-year period during the board’s meeting Wednesday night.

Travis Menard, Iberia Parish School Board child nutrition supervisor, recommended the board approve the increase beginning in the fall to meet state average meal prices and to better cover expenses.

Menard recommended increasing full-price lunches by 10 cents each year and increasing school visitor meals by 50 cents, both increases to take place over the next three years.

Advertisement

Menard said the price increase will correct a budget deficit.

“Current federal reimbursement does not cover the total cost per meal for students in free, reduced or paying categories,” Menard said.

The School Board’s food budget is approximately $8 million, with $3 million of that being the cost of food, Menard said.

“Right now we’re looking at a per plate cost of about $2.50,” he said. “Plate cost is the same across the board. The difference in the cost is we have to charge visitors at least the cost of the plate.”

Students pay a lower rate per lunch, if enrolled in the free or reduced program.

Employees, he said, pay about $3 a plate. According to the recommendation, an increase in lunch cost will average those of surrounding parishes.

Menard said Student Nutrition Services works efficiently and economically.

“We’re really good at working with what we’re receiving,” Menard said. “We need to meet the average of other parishes. Currently the cost (of school lunches) in Iberia parish fits us in with the average of surrounding parishes, but of course it’s not enough to cover the cost of the meals.”

Menard said the state reimburses 25 cents per meal for full-pay meals, purchased by visitors, while federal funds administered by the state pay $2.68 per plate.

District 8 School Board member Edwin Buford asked what percentage of students are getting free lunches. Menard said approximately 74 percent of Iberia Parish students receive free or reduced lunches.

“We accept applications for free or reduced lunch, using a computer program to sort all those applications, which shoots information to the school’s computers,” Menard said. “The schools have software which, as a student walks through the line, they give the worker a number, an identifier, and info comes up on the screen.” Whether a student is or is not receiving free or reduced lunch isn’t shown on-screen, because of program guidelines preventing identification by income. “The computer only shows what the student owes,” Menard said.

Buford asked if Iberia Parish was paid more than it costs us to fix that lunch.

“Not anymore,” Menard said. “It’s almost a break-even, but not quite, which is the reason for our budgets being as they have over the last few years.”

Blaine Meche, Iberia Parish School Board vice president and District 10 member, asked what types of meals were being prepared in the schools and how much food was being wasted.

“We’re more efficient,” Menard said. “We’re tightening up on the amount of food purchased. Our food purchases are actually down. We do find ways here and there to cut, with the exception being that we keep the quality of food up.”

Meche asked what type of nutritional foods the schools could prepare that would get eaten and not thrown away. “We’re fighting a fine line between what we have to serve,” Menard said.

He pointed out federal and state guidelines require nutritional meals, including  vegetables and fruits, but pointed out that while they provide these, his office still gets calls.

“I get calls from parents about the amount of starch in the meals, but the federal government considers potatoes a vegetable, so we serve potatoes and corn because the kids eat it, as opposed to say, broccoli,” Menard said. “It’s a fine line between what we need to make, and what the students eat.”