Fulton County Schools students will pay a bit more for breakfast and lunch next school year if a proposal by the system’s nutrition department gets approved.
Alyssia Wright, the executive director of School Nutrition, proposed increasing the cost of student breakfast by 10 cents and lunch by 15 cents during a recent budget update for the Fulton Board of Education. She said student meal prices haven’t increased in since 2019.
Meal prices for elementary students would be $1.20 for breakfast and $2.60 for lunch if approved by the board. Middle and high schoolers would pay $1.35 for breakfast and $2.85 for lunch.
“By adjusting meal prices, the school nutrition program can better align its revenue streams with the rising costs of food and labor,” Wright said.
Almost half of the student meals are free or at a reduced price, she said.
Even after the increase, FCS meal prices would remain lower than most other districts in the area. Atlanta Public Schools charges students $1.50 for breakfast and $3 for lunch. DeKalb County charges $1.75 for elementary and $1.85 for middle and high school student breakfasts. Its lunch charges are $2.85 for elementary school students and $3 for middle and high school students.
Nearly 700 employees use 95 commercial kitchens to provide 13 million meals annually to Fulton County Schools, Wright said. The budget for fiscal year 2025 is just over $57 million, she said.
“The majority of our revenue is generated from student sales at 84 percent and the largest of our expenditures are food and labor at 88 percent,” Wright said.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) school supply chain assistance grant over the past three years provided FCS with $6.3 million. The school district has $2.6 million to roll over into 2025, she said. To follow USDA guidelines, FCS has developed a five-year plan to remain in compliance. Part of that plan includes upgrading the School Nutrition Department’s accountability software for $1.5 million.
