High schools will move toward fast casual meals like made-to-order wraps, a loaded baked potato bar and rice and pasta bowls. ![]() Bowls of often-ignored apples and oranges will be replaced by plums and fresh-cut pineapple and melon. The upgrades are expected to cost about $1.7 million more in food costs plus $1.3 million to hire another 30 employees needed to run the kitchens. In the past, such a price tag has been an obstacle. ![]() Food services operations in public schools are supposed to be cost-neutral: a district spends as much as it earns on meal sales and federal reimbursement, with no funding infusion from the general budget. In Rochester, where both overall enrollment and school meal participation are falling, that formula originally would have led to a decrease in the food budget from 2021-22 to 2022-23. The school board, though, decided to break the general guideline of a self-funding food service program. It will transfer about $1.5 million from the general fund balance and also take $1 million from the food service fund balance increased revenue from greater participation is expected to make up the difference. "The reality is, they are breaking their necks to even produce that level of food, and they cannot do it on the budget we’re providing them." "To continue to say we’re going to self-sustain this budget line and then say on the record that the food is sub-par," School Board Vice President Beatriz LeBron said. Other area school districts do not generally supplement their food operations from the general fund, though some have done so temporarily to navigate the sharp decrease in funding due to schools closing during COVID-19.
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