{"id":9912,"date":"2012-06-13T10:40:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T14:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=9912"},"modified":"2012-06-13T10:40:53","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T14:40:53","slug":"school-lunch-prices-slated-to-increase-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=9912","title":{"rendered":"School lunch prices slated to increase again"},"content":{"rendered":"

New federal healthy food guideline require healthier but more expensive school lunches<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 For the second straight year, school lunches in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District will be more expensive \u2014 but, school officials say, the lunches will also be healthier, thanks to new federal guidelines.<\/p>\n

Lunches at district schools will increase by .25 for the 2012-13 school year, assuming the Board of Education approves the boost at next Monday\u2019s Board of Education meeting. Elementary lunches will go from $2.25 to $2.50 while middle and high school lunches will go from $2.50 to $2.75. Lunch prices saw a similar increase for the most recent school year, as federal rules requiring healthier \u2013 and more expensive food \u2014 be served in the nation\u2019s school cafeterias.<\/p>\n

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, requires schools to charge a minimum of $2.46 for federally subsidized lunches, beginning in the 2012-13 school year, UCF Food Service Director Marie Wickersham said.<\/p>\n

In addition to higher prices, the act mandates higher-quality, healthier food be served as well. Whole grain pastas and breads will replace white flour items, flavored milk must be skim, and more non-meat protein options must become part of the menu, among other changes Wickersham noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more expensive, but healthier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the new menus and pricing is likely to be approved, not everyone on the Board of Education was warmly supportive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad Michelle Obama came here to tell us what to feed our children,\u201d board member Keith Knauss said during Monday\u2019s board Finance Committee meeting, where the price change was discussed.<\/p>\n

Other members were concerned about the financial impact \u2014 would higher prices mean less students buying school lunch?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf kids bring in lunch instead, will it effect the ability of the food service department to break even?\u201d board member Holly Manzone asked.<\/p>\n

Wickersham said she remains optimistic \u2014 that there might be some drop off initially as there was this past year, but that most students currently paying for lunch would continue to do so. And she expressed the hope that this will be the final increase for a while \u2014 before last year\u2019s hike, prices remained stable for about five years, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that if we raise prices next year, we won\u2019t have to raise them again for several years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In other district news, Wickersham appears poised to take on a new title: Supervisor of Food Service and Transportation, as her old food service management job is slated to be merged with transportation. Current Supervisor of Transportation Gail Wolfel is retiring. The change in administration structure, the third reduction in school management staff since 2010, is expected to be formally approved Monday night.<\/p>\n

Also, district elementary school teachers will be able to attend a special graduate-level math education class at Unionville Elementary, given in conjunction with West Chester University. The class curriculum was developed specifically for the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a good way to focus our tuition dollars,\u201d said John Nolen, the district\u2019s Director of Curriculum and Instruction.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Board of Education is expected to give final approval to the 2012-13 school year budget Monday night. The budget calls for 2.65% tax increase in Chester County and a 1.74% decrease in Delaware County (the difference comes changes in the gross property valuation of the two counties).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New federal healthy food guideline require healthier but more expensive school lunches By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 For the second straight year, school lunches in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District will be more expensive \u2014 but, school officials say, the lunches will also be healthier, thanks to new federal guidelines. Lunches at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1471,1470,1469,24],"class_list":["post-9912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-healthy-hunger-fre-kids-act","tag-michelle-obama","tag-school-lunches","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}