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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, June 8, 2009

Proposal seeks raise in school lunch price from $1.25 to $2.20


Advertiser Staff

Superintendent Pat Hamamoto will recommend increasing public school lunch prices from $1.25 to $2.20 at a meeting of the state Board of Education’s Administrative Services Committee today, according to a memo from the state Department of Education to board members.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the board meeting room at the Queen Liliuokalani Building.
Presently, the cost for a full-priced lunch is $1.25, DOE officials said. Beginning Jan. 1, schools will be required to charge $2.20. It costs about $4.40 to prepare a lunch, according to the DOE.
Similarly, the cost for a full-priced breakfast is 35 cents, which will increase to 95 cents. It costs the DOE about $1.90 to prepare an individual breakfast, according to the DOE.
Reduced-price meals also will see increases under the proposal.
Breakfast would go from 20 cents to 30 cents and lunch from 20 cents to 40 cents.
The proposal comes as a new law — known as Act 26 — is set to take effect July 1 and follows a year in which the DOE's food costs surged nearly 15 percent. The measure allows the DOE to charge more than half of the cost of preparation of a meal.