Wausau committee recommends small meal-price increase after USDA paid-lunch-equity review

Karen Fox, the district’s Nutrition Services director, told the committee the USDA paid-lunch-equity tool requires the district to calculate a weighted average paid-lunch price. Her team calculated a required weighted-average price of $3.19 and proposed increasing paid-lunch prices by $0.10 at elementary, middle and high schools and breakfast prices by $0.05.

Fox described the change as modest and framed it against rising food, supply and labor costs. "So what we came up with ... is across the board a 10-cent increase for each elementary, middle, and high school lunch price, and then a nickel for the breakfast pricing," she said.

The chair moved to recommend the proposed meal-price change to the full board; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.

Next steps: the recommended price changes will appear in the full-board packet for formal approval.