HONOLULU — The price of Hawaii school lunches is expected to increase in the fall semester.
Prices would go up by 25 cents to $2.75 for high-school students and $2.50 for elementary and intermediate students, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper reported. Food and labor costs have increased, pushing up meal expenses over the past five years by more than 17 percent, state education officials said.
The increase would raise an additional $1.7 million a year for the state Department of Education’s food services branch. A price hike would be the first increase since 2011.
The department has a statutory increase requirement, said Dann Carlson, assistant superintendent overseeing food services, who spoke Tuesday before the finance committee of the Hawaii Board of Education. Carlson noted a 2009 state law that requires meal prices be set at a level “not less than half” the cost of preparing a meal.
Each meal costs $5.51 to prepare, officials said. The state serves a total of about 107,000 lunches a day at 255 schools.
An increase proposed by the Education Department last month would have raised prices by 30 percent over a span of three years. That action was deferred by the education board’s finance chair, Brian De Lima, who asked Carlson to develop plans to reduce costs.
“We’re committed to trying to find efficiencies,” Carlson said. He plans to seek a third-party review of operations to look for more ways to save.
The one-time increase was unanimously approved by the finance committee. A full board approval of the recommendation is expected at its next meeting.