New York is the Big Apple, and this economy will take a huge bite out of you, even if you are a child. The Senate has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase the price of school lunches, and the price could go from $1.50 to $2.72. But should parents have to pay extra money for school lunches to stimulate the economy?
“I think it’s a great idea because right now Medicaid is having cutbacks. I don’t think it would hurt anyone that much. The price is not bad for a meal,” said Jamil Huie, 30, a registered nurse.
Paying an extra $1.22 may not seem bad at first glance, but paying the difference five days a week for an entire year can amount to $292.80.
Under the new mandate, schools will be required to raise prices each year by 2 percent until they reach the USDA’s estimates for the actual cost of providing school lunch. According to the USDA, that cost is currently $2.72.
Some Queens residents believe their children are paying for the mistakes of politicians.
“I’m really getting sick and tired of these politicians making us pay for their expenses. They have people in a war that I don’t believe in; they spend money on traveling to space, which I don’t care for. And we have to pay for it,” said Queens resident Anthony Gary, 31, a father of two. “The extra money that I would pay for the school lunch price increase could have gone towards my son’s college education.”
The media relations representative for the Department of Education of New York State insisted that she could only state the price of school lunches now when asked what her thoughts were on the proposed school lunch price increases. The prices, according to her, are stable for now. Some students receive lunch for free, others make a partial payment of 25 cents and the rest of the students pay the full price of $1.50.
The Senate believes that this proposed increase in lunch pricing will generate $2.6 billion in profits over the next 10 years, provided that 32 million kids participate, as opposed to 12 million. The majority of schools, therefore, will take longer than 10 years to reach the government’s baseline, and almost half of the schools will take more than 20 years.
When it comes to this economy, even the hands of a child are on deck.