Families of Brown County Schools students will see an increase in price for Thanksgiving lunches next month.
For many years, the price to have Thanksgiving lunch with students has been $5 per adult. But with the increasing costs of food, the decision was made to reduce the menu and increase the price to $8 a person.
The price change only applies to adults. Non-school-aged children can eat lunch with their family for $4. Student lunch prices will not increase either. Free and reduced lunch benefits will also remain in place for students.
The change was announced at the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 4.
It’s part of the process of trying to get the district’s food service budget back into shape, Superintendent Laura Hammack said. In September, Hammack said the district’s food service fund was running in the red and that the general fund has had to supplement food services by about $100,000 over the last two years.
“No matter what in school finance, you have to pay your bills. You can’t default, so when the food service account goes into a position of not being in balance, the general fund has to pick up that balance,” she said.
“Jason (Kirchhofer, the director of food service) has really taken the lead on trying to get the food service fund back on track.”
The increase also came about because of a mandate by the Indiana Department of Education that when a district provides meals for adults, it must charge for the cost of that food. “There is no subsidy of the cost of food for adults having meals at school. It’s a different rule for adults than it is for children,” Hammack said.
With the original menu, the price for an adult to have Thanksgiving lunch would have been $15. “That is a number that no one can afford when you think about having several family members,” Hammack said.
The pared-down menu for this year’s lunches will be turkey, gravy, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, green beans, cinnamon apple crisp, ice cream, milk, tea and coffee.
“The schools make absolutely no money on this,” Hammack said. “This is not a fundraiser; we are genuinely charging cost of price per food that we’re able to purchase for this event.”
Kirchhofer told the board that the price of turkey is 78 cents per pound, but three years ago when there was a bird flu epidemic, that price increased to $2 a pound. The district didn’t increase ticket prices during that time.
“I expressed my concern with Dr. Hammack because even as an employee of the school, I wouldn’t be able to have the additional $15 for myself and my wife to have lunch with my kids. … That’s $60 I would spend to spend Thanksgiving dinner with my (two) kids. …
“Dr. Hammack and Mrs. (Kelli) Bruner said it plain as day: It’s all about family. It’s not about the food. … We’re trying to make sure we make it affordable for anybody to come in and do that. … We still want to welcome their parents even if they don’t want to eat, because they get to spend time with their kids.”
Kirchhofer and administrative assistant Paula Waterman will work as additional staff at the schools on the day of the lunches at no additional cost to the district. He said he was working with building principals to organize teacher help during the lunches, too.
In the future, the district will consider getting corporate sponsorship for Thanksgiving lunches, like other school districts do, to help cover the costs. Kirchhofer said it could also be possible to accept donations of specific canned or nonperishable items for future Thanksgiving lunches to help bring costs down.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Thanksgiving lunch dates” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
- Friday, Nov. 2: Sprunica Elementary
- Wednesday, Nov. 7: Van Buren Elementary
- Wednesday, Nov. 14: Brown County Intermediate School sixth grade
- Thursday, Nov. 15: BCIS fifth grade
- Friday, Nov. 16: Helmsburg Elementary
- Tuesday, Nov. 20: Brown County Junior High
- To be determined: Brown County High School
