High school opts out of National School Lunch Program for second time

Board of Education members have again turned down nearly $150,000 in extra funding for the district's embattled food services program because they do not want to serve up food restrictions in the Greenwich High School cafeteria.

The school board unanimously voted this week to keep the school out of the National School Lunch Program for the second straight year.

School officials estimated the district would lose about $149,000 in federal reimbursements next year. This year, the opt-out means the school system is skipping some $140,000 in subsidies for meals served.

School officials said they were aware of the cost of staying out of the program but argued that the district would risk losing even more money by staying in and having to follow U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations enacted last year, which would have affected the high school's a la carte menu.

Student a la carte spending generated about $1.3 million last year, accounting for about 95 percent of food sales at Greenwich High, according to school officials.

"We know that we are foregoing about $149,000 in reimbursables from opting out Greenwich High School from the National School Lunch Program," said board member Laura Erickson. "But what we are doing is protecting, we believe, the unknown loss in revenue from a la carte purchases at Greenwich High."

Deli sandwiches, grill items, potato products and muffins are some of the items that would not have met fat restrictions in the new rules.

Free and reduced-price meals served under the lunch program have always been regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The district's elementary and middle schools remain in the lunch program. At the high school, the district has picked up the tab for subsidizing free and reduced-price meals.

Leaving money on the table to avoid dietary restrictions is not new in Greenwich. The district has never participated in the state's Healthy Food Certification, which could give the district almost $50,000 a year in state funding.

Together, the foregone federal and state money next year is estimated to total about $200,000, accounting for about 5 percent of the Food Services' $4.1 million budget for 2015-16.

Greenwich High student government leaders continue to back the decision to opt out. They said the new rules would be at odds with the school's motto of "freedom of responsibility."