The Wild Wild Wild West of School Lunches #4: The $1.74 Challenge

Ahhhhhhhhhh. It's the weekend. You're looking forward to fun with family and friends. Perhaps you're hosting a dinner party. I have a challenge for you. I would like you to create a healthy and nutritious meal that everybody will eat and enjoy for $1.74 per serving. That's what each school that has a lunch program receives from the federal government in order to serve free breakfasts to those who qualify. Here are the requirements:

• Everybody has to finish their meal and enjoy it.
• You have to serve milk.
• You have to serve three servings of fruit and vegetables.
• It's preferable to include beans.
• Eat and serve 30 people within 1/2 hour's time by yourself.
• You will get style points for serving fresh organic locally grown vegetables and fruits.

That's the challenge. If you would like to be more precise in exactly what the USDA requirements are you can visit their website USDA. 

For those of you who want hard data here are the figures:

Breakfast:

Free: $1.74

Reduced: $1.44

Pay: $.26

Lunch

Free: $2.70

Reduced: $2.30

Pay: .$.27

You might be saying yourself if you are following this blog and saw my picture of $5.48 worth of food that it might not be that hard. Maybe it isn't. I don't know. That's why I am challenging my readers to come up with a solution.

But wait there's more! One school I work in with 70 students goes $15,000 in the red to provide school meals. Another school with 120 students goes $45,000 in the red.For you math types here are the figures to work with:

180 days in the school year (x) 70 students (x) $4.44/student (-) !5,000 = 70 healthy, happy and whole children who eat every bite! Good Luck

Rhode Island's Lunch Program