School Lunch Prices are Rising Nationwide

School Lunch Prices are Rising Nationwide

Hailey Bicha

 

In the United States 12.7% of families are in poverty, they are constantly watching every every penny being spent. All these families have kids going to school and getting lunch, but lunch is not as cheap as it used to be. A town in Connecticut, along with many other states across the country, has raised their lunch prices by 25 cents. Making Elementary school lunches be $2.25, middle school be $2.50, and high school lunches be $2.75.

 

The reason why lunch prices have raised in the past few years is from the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. It was signed by our former president Barack Obama. First Lady Michelle Obama championed this act to make sure students were getting the proper nutrition, along with healthy food comes higher  prices so they knew that this would raise school lunch prices. For the family who can’t afford the higher prices they can receive federal assistance. I know many people at Blaine that are able to get free lunches because they may not be able to afford the lunch prices. When schools are using the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act these are some of the requirements they have to follow; schools must limit milk offerings to low-fat options, schools must provide access to free water for students during meal times, and schools that adhere to the new nutritional requirements will be awarded additional federal reimbursement.

 

There are so many families at Blaine High School that are struggling financially, and or some students that don’t have families to go home to. Making it almost impossible for them to keep up with paying for their lunches everyday. It is good that there are other options for families who can’t afford lunch prices but I personally think we shouldn’t even have raised the prices in the first place, so we wouldn’t have to be having this conversation and so many families would not be struggling. If we never increased the lunch prices we wouldn’t be able to have all the healthier options for students, but I personally think for the few kids who want to eat healthy and nutritious foods they can bring a cold lunch from home, while keeping the lunches how they used to be at a reasonable price for all families.