Broward school lunch prices rise by $1 to help close deficit

A Broward family with one child who buys school lunch every day will pay about $180 more over a 180-day school year after the School Board of Broward County, Florida, approved a $1 increase on June 23. The same change adds about $360 a year for a household with two lunch-buying students and about $540 for three.

Elementary lunch will rise from $3 to $4, middle school lunch will cost $4.35 and high school lunch will be $4.50. Reduced-price lunch will still be 40 cents, and breakfast will remain free for all students.

The increase comes after years of steady jumps in meal prices. Broward lunch costs were no more than $2 in 2012.

Broward's 2026-27 nutrition plan also shows how uneven access to free meals will remain across the county. The district will operate 141 schools under the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which provides free breakfast and lunch to all students without applications. The other 80 schools will still rely on Meal Benefits Applications, and students there will keep their prior-year meal status for the first 30 days of school. Families without a completed application will have to start paying for lunch on Sept. 22, 2026, until eligibility is determined.

Automatic free-meal eligibility will continue for students in households receiving SNAP, TANF or Head Start, along with foster, homeless and migrant students. Broward serves breakfast, lunch, after-school snacks, after-school supper and summer meals, and second meals are charged at adult prices.

The district has 50,000 empty seats and a $94 million budget hole because it has 10,000 fewer students than it did the year before. In October 2025, the district projected a $60 million shortfall for 2026 and weighed cuts to overtime and unfilled positions. A coalition of large urban school districts also urged Broward to review food service staffing levels, labor productivity and assigned hours.

Broward already paid off $720,433 in student meal debt from the 2025-26 school year. The increase was tied to federal Paid Lunch Equity expectations that meal prices should cover food and labor costs.