Wallkill Valley school keeps student lunch price steady

HAMBURG — The Wallkill Valley Regional High School Board of Education kept student-prices flat, while increasing the prices of adult lunches for the 2014-15 school year.

With new mandates and the cost of ingredients on the rise, as well as the need to increase the quality of product served, schools all across the nation have to deal with an increase in lunches each year. For the 2014-15 school year, Wallkill Valley’s plan was to increase both student and adult lunches from $2.75 to $3.00 and $3.25 to $3.50, respectively. This would be an equal increase of 25 cents for each. However, the school board felt the adults should step in a bit more to offset some costs.

“I hate to raise the cost of lunch for kids and, at the same time, increasing the cost of lunch for adults is… I mean $3.50 for an adult lunch is cheap. You can’t even get a slice of pizza and a soda for that,” school board member Edward Card said.

“Can we wait another year? It just seems like too much to continue raising the price of lunch each year for the kids,” school board member Ginny Jones said.

After discussion, the board agreed to keep the students at the same flat rate of $2.75, with a raise to the adult lunch by 50 cents, making it $3.75.

Students who qualify for free lunches will not be affected by this change. There is no law stating there is a maximum amount that can be charged for an adult lunch, however it must be at least 50 cents more than a student’s lunch cost.