EDITORIAL
Public school lunches are still a bargain

If the tab for any other product were to inch up from 25 cents in 1960 to $1 in 2001, we'd call it the bargain of the century.

And although raising school lunch prices is never a popular decision, Hawai'i's school lunch program would still remain a bargain even with the proposed 50-cent increase, particularly when you consider the rising costs of food and labor over the past 45 years. The increase would allow the state to recoup only half the cost of providing the meals.

Indeed, our school lunches are cheaper than most on the Mainland, according to Gene Kaneshiro, director of the DOE's School Food Service Branch. The average cost of a school lunch in California, for example, is $1.70, with San Francisco County charging $2.27 and Los Angeles County charging $1.71.

So it's understandable that the Board of Education is asking the state Legislature to let it bump the price of school lunches up to $1.50. As it is, the DOE can barely keep up with the costs.

It's also important to note that the price hike would not affect students who receive free or reduced-price meals under the federal and state subsidized lunch program. An estimated 40 percent of Hawai'i public school students qualify for that program.

That said, we would not want to see the price of school lunches go up repeatedly, certainly not more than once every few years, because that would create hardships for those families that don't qualify for government subsidies, yet are struggling to make ends meet.

As President Harry Truman said when he enacted the National School Lunch Program in 1946, "Nothing is more important in our national life than the welfare of our children, and proper nourishment comes first in attaining this welfare."

In that spirit, let's keep this program affordable and nutritious.