Fayette schools considering increasing the costs of breakfasts and lunches

Editor’s note: Following feedback from Fayette school board members, district administration is no longer recommending an increase in meal prices, a district spokesperson said Friday.

Free meals for all students could be going away at several Fayette schools in addition to a price increase for those who pay for meals.

Fayette school breakfast and lunch prices would increase by 50 cents under a recommendation made by district staff and set to be voted on by the school board in May.

Currently, students are paying $2 for breakfast. That would increase to $2.50. The adult breakfast would increase from $3.50 to $4.

Right now, pre-K through fifth-grade students students are paying $2.75 for lunch. That would increase to $3. 25.

Sixth through 12th graders are currently paying $3. That would increase to $3.50. Adult lunches would increase from $5 to $5.50.

“It’s been a couple of years since we have raised meal prices. We would propose that we would have a 50-cent price increase across the board for these meals,” said district chief operating officer Myron Thompson.

Thompson said such an increase was necessary to be good stewards of tax dollars and keep up with inflation.

“At some point we have to look at increasing rates for those that can pay,” he said at a February budget workshop.

“We are currently reviewing our lunch prices and budgets across all areas, as we do each year around this time, in preparation for the tentative budget that, as required by statute, is adopted by the Board of Education each May,” said Dia Davidson-Smith, spokesperson for Fayette County Public Schools.

“Should lunch price increases be proposed, it will be part of the May board meeting when the tentative budget is presented.”

The district is working to finalize a tentative budget of more than $800 million for 2025-2026 with a school board vote planned for May.

“We, as a child nutrition organization, will not let children go hungry,” Thompson said. “We want to make sure that is abundantly clear going forward. We just ask that those who can, pay their fair share.”

“When families don’t pay, we continue to give the full meal to the child,” Fayette Superintendent Demetrus Liggins said.

As of Jan. 31 , Fayette County families owed $35,000 in unpaid bills for school meals.

The district child nutrition program has a $33.7 million budget. Fayette County Public Schools serves 14,908 breakfasts each day; 27,727 lunches; and 850 dinners each day, Thompson said.

The district is facing another issue involving meals with several schools no longer eligible for free meals for every student under the Community Eligibility Provision. That allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications.

Instead, schools that adopt the provision are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on other federal money they receive.

Currently, under the federal Community Eligibility Provision program every student in 58 Fayette County schools get free meals; kids in nine schools pay for them, said Thompson.

Because of a decrease in the poverty level and the end of a four-year reimbursement cycle, several schools will no longer be eligible to have every student eat free this fall under the federal program.

That list includes Meadowthorpe, Sandersville, Garden Springs, Ashland, Wellington and Glendover elementary schools; Beaumont, Morton, Edythe J. Hayes, and Jessie Clark middle schools; and STEAM Academy. Paul Laurence Dunbar and Lafayette high schools.

The school district would have to spend more than $2.9 million to keep those students eating free.

“It’s a painful thing,” Thompson said.

This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 2:46 PM.