Mon Jun 23 2014, 5:00pm
District Meeting Room
Regular Meeting

ACTION ITEMS

Proposal to Eliminate Reduced Lunch Fee

Woodland School District

Nutrition Services

Reduced Lunch Price Analysis

May 28, 2014

 

The following analysis shows the impact of changing the Reduced Price Lunch from "$.40" to "$0" forgrades 4-12.

Currently the State of WA reimburses the District $.40 for each Reduced Price Lunch served to grades K-3.

 

  1. I.  Expected Revenue based on status quo - charging $.40 for each Reduced Price Lunch for grades 4-12.

 

 

 

 

 

Rate Per Meal

Projected

MealsServed

 

LocalRevenue

$0.40

 

StateRevenue

$0.40

 

FederalRevenue

$2.69

 

TotalRevenue

Meal Category

 

 

 

 

 

Reduced Price Lunches K-3

11,809

$

-

$

4,724

$

31,766

$

36,490

Reduced Price Lunches 4-12

5,803

$

2,321

$

-

$

15,610

$

17,931

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totals

17,612

$

2,321

$

4,724

$

47,376

$

54,421

 

 

  1. II.  Expected Revenue based on eliminating the $.40 charge for each Reduced Price Lunch for grades 4-12.

 

 

 

 

 

Rate Per Meal

Projected

MealsServed

 

LocalRevenue

$0.40

 

StateRevenue

$0.40

 

FederalRevenue

$2.69

 

TotalRevenue

Meal Category

 

 

 

 

 

Reduced Price Lunches K-3

11,809

$

-

$

4,724

$

31,766

$

36,490

Reduced Price Lunches 4-12 (14.9% Increase)

6,666

$

-

$

-

$

17,932

$

17,932

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totals

18,475

$

-

$

4,724

$

49,698

$

54,421

 

The above data indicates that an increase of 863 lunches at the 4-12 reduced level would be revenue neutral. This is an average increase of five additional lunches per day. There are currently 93 students eligible for reduced lunch in grades 4-12. An average of 60 of these students are eating lunch everyday. An average of five of the 33 students who are not eating would need to eat to make up for the lost local revenue. This is a very reasonable estimation

 

Stacy found out through her research that there are only 4 school districts who are subsidizing the $.40 reduced lunch charge for grades 4-12.  These are Port Angeles, Seattle, Federal Way and Renton. I heard from Seattle and Federal Way.  

 
Federal Way has been paying the $.40 since 1998.  At that time they had 75% participation rate for free, but only 25% of their reduced kids were eating lunch.  Now, their reduced participation roughly the same as the free rate (73% as of October 2013).  She sees the meals as costing "food only" since the staff is already there (this did not result in the need to increase staff).  They receive $2.55 for each reduced meal served that they would not otherwise receive.  She said after they made the change she received many calls from secretaries and principals stating they had fewer health room visits for the reduced students.  They speculated that the previously "ill " students were actually hungry.  Mary Asplund, Directory of Nutrition Services said it was one of the best decisions she has made in her tenure at Federal Way.
 
Seattle Public Schools has been paying the $.40 since 2007-08.  In the first year they saw an increase of just over 41% in the number of reduced students eating lunch and it has increased since then. She also feels that it was a good decision for Seattle and did not increase needed staffing since the meals were spread throughout the district.
Attached Files:
Reduced Price Analysis.pdf application/pdf 67K