First Posted: 6/6/2012

School lunches prices will increase five cents next school year, due to a federal mandate to comply with fair pricing standards.

Elementary school lunches will increase from $1.60 to $1.65, middle and high school lunches will increase from $2.10 to $2.15 and adult lunches will increase from $2.35 to $2.40.

Last year, school lunches increased 10 cents over the previous year.

Price Equity Increases are part of Section 205 of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 which requires schools’ child nutrition departments to look at lunch prices each year and use what’s called the “Paid Lunch Equity”tool to calculate lunch price increases.