On The Chopping Block: School Meals Or Programs
For every action, there’s going to be a reaction. We’ve known this since Isaac Newton.
When the Hawaii State Board of Education broke the law and rejected school meal price increases, it created a in the Hawaii Department of Education‘s food services budget.
But the real cost isn’t just dollars and cents.
Ironically, even though the board said it was looking out for the kids, students will be the ones paying the price. There are only two options to make up the cost: Quality of meals will suffer or other school programs will take a hit.
The money for the meals has to come from somewhere. If it doesn’t come from the department’s general fund, which is already suffering the tightest pinch in its history, then it may be taken out of the school grocery budget itself. All students — not just the middle-class ones — could soon be eating either less, or lower quality food.
All because the board opposed the modest increases — five cents on breakfast and 15 cents on lunch.
| Per Meal | Current | Rejected | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | $0.95 | $1 | $0.05 |
| Lunch | $2.20 | $2.35 | $0.15 |
| Total | $3.15 | $3.35 | $0.20 |
| Per Year | Current | Rejected | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | $171 | $180 | $9 |
| Lunch | $396 | $423 | $27 |
| Total | $567 | $603 | $36 |
Board Chairman Garrett Toguchi said he and the other “nay” voters struggling families from steeper costs. He specifically noted his concern for families who don’t qualify for state for federal subsidies on meals, after-school care or transportation. (The charge for reduced-price meals would remain at the current rate of 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. That is the maximum school districts can charge in order to receive subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the reduced-price meals.)
In the meeting, board member John Penebacker cited sources stating that meal price increases would have “devastating effects” on middle-class families. He said he is opposed to all mandated fee increases, and that the board’s decisions should be student-centered.
The price of meals seems an odd thing to take a stand on — especially considering the board earlier this year voted to more than double bus fare for students. It also approved raising the price of the A+ after-school program by $55 per child for next year.
They knew these things when they voted against increased meal prices. They also knew they were flouting that requires them to charge at least half the cost of preparing the meals. (The cost of preparing the meals has gone up this year, hence the whole discussion.)
But on school meals, eight members of the 13-member board decided to take a stand, maybe to make a point to the Hawaii Legislature, which in 2009 passed the law requiring the board to charge 50 percent of the meal cost. The Legislature also passed a ballot proposal this year that resulted in the elected board’s ouster. (Gov. Neil Abercrombie will appoint a new board in the new year.)
Regardless of the board members’ motives, department officials made sure there was no mistake about the consequences of rejecting the meal price increase.
“If monies are not received from meals, they are taken from (the education department’s) general fund,” said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent of School Facilities and Support Services, according to from that meeting.
And as Toguchi himself noted when justifying the board’s decision, “a hungry student cannot learn.”
School Food Services Branch director Glenna Owens told Civil Beat that she is not prepared to speculate about what course of action the department will take in the wake of the board decision. Moore said in the meeting that the funds would come from another program, but the department would not know which one until the end of the year.
“The department is monitoring our food service expenditures closely,” said department spokeswoman Sandy Goya. “At this time, we are unable to speculate about any budgetary impacts to other state programs.”
