Inflation is an issue the United States has been struggling with far before covid, but the 2020 pandemic left its effect on the economy. It is important to understand the reason for this uptick in prices because Penn-Trafford High School and its cafeteria are not immune to its consequences.
P-T’s Aramark Food Services Director, Megan Cusack, said that the price of student lunches are affected by everything from supply chain restraint and the cost of labor to gas prices. Struggles with labor in particular have put extra pressure on our school.
“When they don’t have enough people to do it, then they have to pay the people they do have more money, so that is then turned onto the consumer who purchases it,” Cusack said.
Because of the issue of inflation that was worsened by Covid 19, the cost to make and transport the food increased. Consequently, prices have gone up for the school district.
“So when the cost of the fuel goes up it’s also turned onto the consumer and the price of the goods,” Cusack said.
The price of goods wasn’t as much of a concern when P-T was involved with the National Lunch Program. The program was introduced in 1946 and aims to provide all public school students with affordable and nutritious lunches.
“The high school was once on it. Seven years ago when they did the remodel they decided to go off the lunch program just due to the quality of the food and the restrictions that had to be followed,” Cusack said.
The food requirements for the National Lunch Program go beyond the inclusion of fruits and vegetables. According to Cusack, every meal has to be at least 50 percent whole grain. This requirement alone significantly limits what the school is able to serve.
“The components you have to take are determined by the program. I have to offer five different vegetable sub categories a week. At breakfast time you have to take a fruit with your meal. It has to have three components one being a fruit, a grain, and a meat or meat alternative. And lunch is the same thing,” Cusack explained about the former program. “You have to have a fruit or a vegetable. The portions are determined by the program. What you have to serve and what kind of ingredients it has is determined by the program.”
While the students were getting healthy meals and the school was paying far less, the National School Lunch Program wasn’t a fit for P-T. The nutritional expectations were too high.
The school now gets all of its lunch food from the companies Sysco and Aramark. P-T has no say on what the prices of the food sold to students will be.
While the pandemic’s end is in sight, the aftermath is starting to become more normal in our everyday lives. With less workers and high gas prices, companies have no choice but to inflate their prices for a profit. School lunch prices are caused by the same things that have already been disrupting the lives of millions of people around the world.
While no one knows when the effects of the pandemic will subside, we do know that not only working class citizens have to pay for it but now our children and students.

Authors: Cilia Catello and Lillian Momyer