Concord Monitor – Merrimack Valley is proposing a school meal price increase to offset rising food debt

A proposal by district administrators to increase meal prices in Merrimack Valley schools was temporarily tabled by the school board Monday, with some members expressing concerns that an increase could further burden families struggling to make ends meet.

“Children cannot function if they are not fed,” Salisbury representative Peggy Jones-Blanchard said. “They are not guaranteed breakfast in the morning and we can only give them one chance at lunch, so I would hate to see prices go up.”

The proposal to increase meal prices by at least $0.25 to $0.50 is due to a desire to offset rising debt from unpaid food bills, said Assistant Superintendent Catherine Masterson. Already this year, the families’ debt is $13,500, Masterson said.

“I don’t want to charge our families more money for food, I just want to ask us to think about” how to deal with this debt, Masterson said at Monday’s school board meeting.

The request to increase meals comes two years after prices were increased by $0.15.

Merrimack Valley currently charges $2.50 for lunch at elementary schools, $3 at middle schools, $3.25 at high schools and $1.65 for breakfast at all levels.

Prices are currently roughly on par with other districts in the area. In Concord, a larger district than Merrimack Valley, lunch prices are slightly higher: $2.75 for elementary school, $3.00 for middle school and $3.50 for high school. In Pembroke, a smaller district, prices are higher in some grades and lower in others: $2.60 at the elementary and middle schools and $2.85 at the high school.

A $0.50 increase would push Merrimack Valley’s rates toward the high end of comparable school districts, but would not place the district at the top of the list. For example, SAU 39, which includes Amherst and Mount Vernon, charges $3.85 for high school lunch, $0.15 more than Merrimack Valley for a $0.50 increase.

The proposed price increase in the Merrimack Valley would impact both breakfast and lunch prices. This would not increase the reduced lunch price, which is set at $0.40 nationwide.

School districts across the state are increasingly struggling to contain lunch debt, which has soared since before the pandemic.

Last year, the Concord School District — which has nearly twice as many students as Merrimack Valley — had to absorb $92,000 in lunch costs. Masterson, Merrimack Valley’s assistant superintendent, did not immediately have the amount her district has been required to pay in recent years.

School districts already subsidize school meals to some extent. In Merrimack Valley, for example, the lunch is worth $4.52, according to the Paid Lunch Equity tool, Masterson said.

When school meal costs are not paid, districts typically resort to escalating notifications to families. Certain districts rarely take families to small claims court if those notices are ignored, InDepthNH reported earlier this school year. Ultimately, however, districts must balance their budgets regardless of whether they receive a refund or not.

Administrators in various school districts attributed the rise in school lunch debt in part to families getting used to not paying for lunch when it was free during the pandemic. This freeze ended in 2022.

In Merrimack Valley, school board members complained that New Hampshire had failed to implement a statewide free school lunch program.

“I would like to see that,” said board President Tracy Bricchi, who is also a newly elected state representative from Penacook.

Superintendent Randy Wormald also encouraged families to apply for free or reduced lunch. This school year, families must earn less than $57,720 to qualify for reduced-price lunch or less than $40,560 to qualify for free lunch.

“There really isn’t a stigma about free or reduced lunch,” Wormald said.

The school board will meet again at its January meeting to consider increasing meal prices.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at [email protected].