The Broward County School Board hiked lunch prices by a dollar going into next school year, a move that's meant to ease the deep financial deficit the district faces.
In elementary schools, lunch will go from $3 to $4. In middle schools, it’ll cost $4.35 and high schoolers will pay $4.50.
In 2012, school lunch in Broward public schools cost no more than $2.
As the district's enrollment plummets, the budget shrinks with it. With a hole of $90 million, Broward County Public Schools is looking for ways to limit spending and cushion its general reserve balance. Even so, it dipped into the bucket to pay off $720,433 in student meal debt for the 2025-26 school year.
In April, he district turned to the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 82 urban school systems dedicated to improving education for children in the inner cities, for guidance on how to stabilize the financial condition of the food service program.
In addition to recommending the board clears the outstanding meal debt balance, it also suggested the district "conduct a comprehensive review of food service staffing levels, labor productivity, and assigned hours...," a memo by coalition executive director Raymond Hart wrote to superintendent Howard Hepburn.
“The district is already [collecting money] well below the actual cost of the meals and the cost of the services, and so by not increasing the meal price again, that has budgetary implications,” Hart told the school board in a workshop on June 16. Board members voted on increasing prices on June 23.
In the memo, Hart also recommended to look at how neighboring school districts are tackling lunch pricing and offerings. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach school districts are part of the council.
Reduced-cost meals will stay at 40 cents. Some families will need to fill out an application in order to be eligible. Others, with children who attend school in a low-income area, will still get free lunch without filling out an application thanks to a federal program.
The federal government reimburses the district based on each student’s meal eligibility status. When a family doesn't submit an application for a reduced-cost or free meal, the reimbursement is only $0.55 per meal, compared to $4.31 and $4.71, respectively.
An annual study into school nutrition trends by the School Nutrition Association found nearly 95% of respondents reported serious or moderate concern for the financial sustainability of their school nutrition program 3 years from now.
The district offered free lunch after the pandemic with the help of Covid-era relief dollars, but that support has run out.
Breakfast will still be free to all students next school year.
