T-R FILE PHOTO — Children wait in line to pick up lunch.

The Marshalltown School Board must approve school lunch prices ahead of every school year, and this year’s approval came with increases for secondary-level student breakfast and lunch prices.

Those prices, $1.70 for breakfast and $2.65 for lunch in grades 7-12, are each an increase of 10 cents over this year’s prices.

“We have some expenses that we’re anticipating for next year, which include labor increases for our staff and also the addition of insurance expenses for food service staff will be new this year,” said district Food Service Director Lynn Large.

She said food prices are also projected to increase about 2 percent, necessitating the meal price increase. Adult meals are also set to increase 10 cents from this school year to next.

“To be compliant with the USDA guidelines, we’ll also raise adult lunch prices to $3.75,” Large said.

The school’s lunch prices are dictated in part by United States Department of Agriculture funding formulas. The increase to the adult meal prices is so the district can keep up with USDA guidelines and federal regulations, Large said.

Historically, the district has seen an upward trend when it comes to meal prices. However, Large said her department does its best to keep meal prices steady and succeeded in doing so from last school year to this school year.

Another USDA program called Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is the reason K-6 students do not pay out-of-pocket for breakfast and lunch. The program sees that the district is reimbursed for the cost of serving food to those students.

Because of the CEP program, K-6 students have not had to pay out-of-pocket for breakfast or lunch since the 2015 school year, per district information.

The federal Free and Reduced Price meals program also plays a big role at Marshalltown Schools by serving lower-cost meals to students meeting certain qualifications, including enrollment in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other such programs.

At Marshalltown Schools, 3,603 of the total 4,853 enrolled students were eligible for free or reduced-price meals this school year. That is about three quarters of all district students.

The district’s reduced breakfast cost for the 2019-20 school year will be 30 cents and the reduced lunch will be 40 cents.