On March 3, the Freedom Area School District’s lunch extras price increased. This is happening locally and all around the country due to inflation. Due to inflation, our school has to pay more for these food products, and in return, charges us more.
“They haven’t been updated in a few years, and they needed to be updated because of the inflation in the economy,” Natalie Roser, Director of Food and Nutrition, said.
Natalie thinks the students are probably either not too happy about this increase or have mixed emotions about it. One thing the students do seem to be happy about is the new ice creams on the extra menu, which Ms. Roser said was “the most popular item on the extra menu.” The ice cream change was because our new food service group, The Nutrition Group, already has a contract with Hershey’s. A change in the new menu that has been controversial is the discontinuance of asian chicken. Ms. Roser said that this was because they have a new food distributor that doesn’t offer asian chicken.
Freedom Area Middle School fifth grader Haylee Spilsbury was asked how she feels about the extra price raise and answered with “I feel like it was probably necessary, but also not at the same time.” Haylee purchases both school lunches and items from the extra menu frequently. She agrees with The Nutrition Group on adding water to the extra menu because the school provides water fountains. Haylee has not heard of any positive or negative feedback from other students.
Penelope Stroupe, another fifth-grade student, said she hasn’t heard of anyone liking the price increase but has heard complaints about it. She, however, does not have an opinion on it.
While some students are not happy about the price increase of extras, they can get excited because Natalie Roser also spoke about new extra menu items that may be added in the future. Some of these include mozzarella cheese sticks with marinara sauce, nachos and cheese, and warm cookies. The Nutrition Group is hoping to add these items to the extra menu for next school year.
