Since 1997, bread in school lunches in Jay was baked in a school bakery.
By Eric Horn
Special to the Sun Journal

JAY – The Jay schools’ hot lunch program is in need of serious budget adjustments, according to department officials at Thursday’s School Committee meeting.

Superintendent Robert Wall submitted a proposal which he said would go a long way toward getting the lunch program “on an even keel” for the current school year. If committee members accept the proposal, it will mean staff reductions and the closure of Jay’s school bakery.

In order to qualify for some types of federal assistance, lunch programs are required to serve two ounces of bread for each student every day. Since 1997, the bread products used in Jay’s student lunches have been made primarily in a school bakery that uses all-natural ingredients with no preservatives. The proposed changes would require that processed breads be purchased from private bakeries. The school bakery would remain intact in hopes that it might be used again in the future.

Wall told the committee that the lunch program is expected to lose around $9,000 a month unless something is done to cut costs.

“It’s time to take action now before we have a very serious problem,” he said.

Wall gave several reasons for the lunch program’s financial trouble, including labor costs, lower student enrollment, and rising health care costs.

“I want everybody to know,” he added, “this is not a reflection of how (Nutrition Director Brenda Adams) runs the program.”

Adams received high praise at the meeting for helping the program reduce its “unfunded liability,” a deficit that has passed from budget to budget for several years. The unfunded liability for this year’s budget was more than $55,000, down from around $100,000 in past years.

Although the deficit has gotten smaller recently, Wall warned that the lunch program costs were rising faster than its income. “We are charging as much as we can for lunches; we can’t charge any more,” he said. “Where is the money going to come from?”

When asked what she thought about the service cuts being proposed, Adams conceded that something had to change.

“Healthcare costs are killing the program,” she explained. “I can only do so much. I control the food but that’s all.”

Some board members expressed concern over the changes being proposed. One of those was Chairman Jim Durrell, who said he “could not in good conscience vote for some of these changes.”

After discussion, members decided to forgo voting on the proposal and discuss it again at the December meeting. In the meantime, an article will be presented to the Jay selectmen asking the town to give financial support to the hot lunch program.

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