School food service expected to break even

By Suzanne Laurent
Staff writer

Fri, May 16 2008

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LONDONDERRY — With rising fuel costs, the cost of bread and milk — staples of school lunches — is also rising.

Despite the price hikes, the School District is slowly coming out of the red and expects to break even by the end of the school year.

"We normally see a positive balance by December or January," Nancy Faucon, food service director, told the School Board last week.

"Due to the accelerated cost increases of food items and the number of snow days, it will take until April to break even."

Faucon said that a carton of milk costs 23 cents, 6 cents higher than 2007. Bread is up 10 percent.

"Milk is up $23,000 and food is up $50,000, and sales are down," Faucon said.

She noted that many schools are changing menus to meet budgets and foregoing the healthful approach that they were beginning to take.

Faucon said the district will hang in for another year with its current prices for lunches.

"Other schools in the state are averaging $2.08 for high school lunches, $2 for middle school and $1.76 for elementary school," she said.

"We're $1.24 for elementary lunches and $1.50 or $1.75 at high school depending on menu choice."

Faucon said that prices are kept down in Londonderry, because the district is part of a purchasing cooperative with 14 other school districts.

Each June, the district establishes its criteria for bidding to vendors.

"We need to offer out every year to get competitive bidding," Faucon said. "We are expecting bid prices to go high this year with fuel costs."