This fall, Prince George High School students can look forward to cheaper lunches, thanks to a School Board decision to put the school back in the federal breakfast and lunch programs.

The school went off the Federal School Nutrition Program 22 years ago because of low participation, said Sandra Belshan, county school food services director. The high school is the only school in the Prince George system that is not part of the program.

"The difference between the high school and the other schools is that the high school [food service ] receives no financial assistance from the state or the federal government," she said. "It operates solely on the money taken in daily when the students purchase food and beverages."

Prince George High and the high schools in the Hanover, Colonial Heights and Chesterfield school divisions are the only ones in the state that do not participate in the National School Lunch Program, according to the state Department of Education.

Henrico went off the program 10 years ago to allow the school system to break even, said Tim Mertz, director of county school nutrition services. Two years ago, high schools were put back into the breakfast program. And last fall, high schools began participating in the lunch program again, he said.

The program is benefiting students, Mertz said. A lunch combo meal, for example, went from $3 last school year to $1.75 this year.

Chesterfield discontinued the federal lunch program 14 or 15 years ago to try to make its food services program self-sufficient, and because students approved for free and reduced-priced meals did not take advantage of them, said R. Warren Grigg, director of food and nutrition services.

"The decision by the [Chesterfield] board was to offer the a la carte program because students preferred that over the reimbursable lunch based on surrounding counties' success," he said.

Prince George's Belshan said that with the participation in the federal meals program that the School Board approved Monday, Prince George High will offer meals at more affordable prices. A combo meal will be $2, a dollar less than students currently pay, she said. "With the present economic times, it would help the parents monetarily."

Students also will be eligible to qualify for reduced-price meals, which will cost 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast, Belshan said. The food services department currently pays for free meals for low-income students.

Being part of the federal program will allow the department to get reimbursements for students' free and reduced-priced meals, she said, which will "help us greatly in keeping the high school solvent without having to increase lunch prices."
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.