Sand Springs Schools Superintendent Sherry Durkee recently discussed the increase in student breakfast and lunch meals for the school district.
Durkee discussed the matter with Lacye Nydam, Director of Child Nutrition, on the school district’s latest Sandite Chat podcast.
“I am so proud to introduce Ms. Lacye Nydam. She is kind of new. She started with us in November of last year,” Durkee said. “This is her first start of a new year for Sand Springs Public Schools. However, a lady with a lot of experience in child nutrition and just nutrition in general has all the regulations down to fine art probably. So, we're going to start with meal prices because I know that has been a concern. In fact, this summer we had two full board discussions prior to voting about the why.”
Nydam said the school district raised breakfast prices 20% across the board. “So, for K through fifth grade, it'll be $1.80, sixth through eighth grade, also $1.80. And then breakfast, nine through 12 will be $2. Those are the new prices,” she said. “And then for lunch, we increased it by 30 cents through the district, bringing our new prices K through five to $3, six through eight, $3.30, and nine through 12, $3.40.”
Durkee said the district’s Child Nutrition program must be self-sustaining, meaning it is a separate school fund.
“So, when I looked at financials year over year and our trends, for us to remain financially stable and keep our program afloat, we had to do something,” Nydam said. “There's inflation with all grocery prices as we know when we just go to the grocery store. And so, I did a lot of deep digging. Also, I bid out all the food. So, I'm going to try and get the best prices with the best brands to make sure we're serving that high quality.”
Durkee said raising student meal prices was not something the school district and Board of Education took lightly.
“We had a lot of discussion over it over several months, and took it to the board a few times. So, we do understand that having parents and students pay more for lunch is not something that we want to do. It's just something that we have to do at this time,” she said.