TURNER – Leavitt Area High School will raise its hot lunch price 25 cents to help the school system balance the food program’s budget.

The SAD 52 school board approved the change Thursday. When school opens for the fall, its popular “meal deal” will go from $1.75 to $2.

The board also OK’d a slight increase in the cost of breakfast for elementary school students. That will go from 70 cents to 75 cents.

SAD 52’s food program has seen increasing budget problems over the last several years. The program tries to be self-supporting with food sales and state aid, but it wound up $95,000 short in 2004. On top of that, a la carte prices were so high at the high school that some students were paying $3 or more for their food.

When Dave Roberts took over as food services director last year, he created the high school’s “meal deal,” a lower-priced option that gave students hot lunch choices and enticed them to buy. He also streamlined the way students pay for their meals and he joined a co-op to save on food costs.

The changes cut this year’s shortfall by thousands of dollars. Roberts asked to increase the meal price to help cut that shortfall even more next year.

SAD 52 serves more than 2,100 students from Turner, Leeds and Greene.

– Lindsay Tice

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