Lawrence Public Schools considers higher meal prices amid rising costs

If Lawrence Public Schools raises full-price breakfast and lunch by 10 cents, a family with two students who buy both meals every school day would pay about $8 more a month, or $72 more over a 180-day school year. With three students, that added cost would rise to about $12 a month, or $108 a year.

That is the immediate budget pressure facing USD 497 as the school board considers another meal-price increase in June. The proposal would not change prices for students who qualify for reduced-price meals, which would stay at 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch, and free meals would remain free.

Right now, the district’s 2025-2026 schedule sets full-price breakfast at $2.10 in elementary school, $2.20 in middle school and $2.25 in high school. Full-price lunch is $3.10 at elementary schools, $3.30 at middle schools and $3.35 at high schools. Adult breakfasts cost $3.10 and adult lunches cost $5.10.

The Nutrition and Wellness Department sits at the center of the debate. It employs 105 people, serves an average of 6,000 lunches and 1,200 breakfasts each day and runs on a budget of roughly $6 million a year. District leaders said rising food and ingredient costs are squeezing that operation, and they have argued that meal pricing has to keep pace if the department is going to stay self-supporting.

This is not the first time the district has taken that route. In June 2025, the board approved a 10-cent increase for the 2025-2026 school year, the third straight year of 10-cent hikes. At that time, district staff said food, supply and labor costs, including employee health insurance, had climbed.

Julie Henry, the district’s director of nutrition and wellness, told board members that USD 497’s weighted paid meal price in 2024-25 was about $3, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s required weighted average lunch price for 2025-26 was nearly $1 higher. Federal paid lunch equity rules require schools charging below that benchmark to raise prices or cover the gap with nonfederal funds.

USDA’s 2026-2027 guidance also includes an exemption for some school food authorities that had a positive or zero balance in their nonprofit food service account as of June 30, 2025. That makes the local decision more than a simple price increase. It is part of a larger effort to balance rising costs, federal rules and the district’s obligation to keep meals affordable for Lawrence families.

USD 497 board meetings are usually held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, and the June 2026 meetings are scheduled for June 8 and June 22. One of those meetings is expected to bring the vote that decides whether families pay more at the register or the district absorbs the pressure elsewhere.