Students will need more milk money | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

Prices will go up 25 cents for breakfast and lunch and five cents for a half-pint of milk. Breakfast will rise from $1 to $1.25; elementary school lunch will rise from $1.75 to $2; and secondary school lunch will rise from $2 to $2.25.

But even after the increase, the school system's Food and Nutrition Services fund balance will be down about $1 million - from $4 million to $3 million - a result of rising food prices and other expenses, Jodi Risse, supervisor of the department, told the board.

"We have not increased our meal prices to students in three years; however, our food and supply costs have continued to rise as much as 22 percent over that same span," she told the Board of Education on Wednesday.

The board voted unanimously on the change, 6-0, with board members Michael Leahy and Sage Snider absent.

The food services division is separate from the school system's operating fund, said Susan Bowen, finance director for county schools. It's self-supporting, operating with revenue from the sale of food and subsidies from the federal and state governments, she said.

But those revenues aren't sufficient to pay for all the department's expenses, school officials said.

The food services division has tried to keep prices low for students. Breakfast prices in the county schools have not increased for four years, and lunch prices have not gone up for three years, Ms. Risse said.

But food prices have gone up 15.5 percent; employee wages have risen by 11 percent and employee benefits by 41 percent. The reasons range from inflation to food pricing.

That's why even after the price increase set Wednesday, Food and Nutrition Services is projecting its fund balance will be $1 million down at the end of 2008-09 - down to $3.1 million when usually it hovers between $4 and $5 million.

The department serves 1.5 million breakfasts and more than 5.2 million lunches each year.

Board members raised concerns that the change would stop some students from buying lunch. Ms. Risse said she anticipates about a 3 percent drop in the number of students ordering lunch, which is what happened three years ago when the school system raised lunch prices.