School lunch prices to climb for some Tampa Bay students
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Students across the state went back to school this week, and many —including some in Tampa Bay — are facing higher prices for school meals.
Why it matters: Families across the state are already facing an affordability crisis and higher-priced school meals can add to the strain.
- The changes also come as more districts statewide are doing away with universal free lunches through the federal Community Eligibility Program (CEP), a move policy experts say will have a harmful effect.
State of play: School lunch prices will remain the same this year in the Hillsborough and Pinellas county school districts, WUSF reported.
- In Hillsborough, where universal CEP ended a few years ago, 198 schools still meet the federal threshold, meaning students there will get free meals. In Pinellas, it's about 120 schools.
- Pasco County Schools increased its prices, with elementary breakfast, for example, increasing to $2.05 from $1.95. About 40 schools remain eligible.
- Manatee County, which offers free breakfast, is raising lunch prices 15-25 cents, per ABC 7, while Sarasota is hiking breakfast prices 25 cents and lunch 40 cents to start the year.
Between the lines: The CEP is a federal meal program that allows school districts with high-poverty schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students.
- Districts get reimbursed if 62.5% of students are "direct certified," meaning they're also enrolled in other federal programs, such as SNAP, and are eligible to receive meals without having to apply.
The big picture: Offering free meals to students during school reduces childhood food insecurity, supports household food security and creates a positive learning environment, research shows.
- "It takes one hungry and dysregulated child to disrupt an entire classroom," Erin Hysom, senior child nutrition policy analyst at the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), told Axios.
Flashback: During the COVID-19 pandemic, CEP was extended to all students at all schools nationwide, regardless of household economic status.
- When those federal relief dollars sunsetted post-pandemic, some districts continued offering free lunches at schools that didn't meet the criteria, while others stopped.
- A handful of states have adopted policies cementing free meals in their state policies. Florida didn't.
Stunning stat: During the 2025-26 school year, Florida had the largest decrease in the total number of schools participating in CEP, with almost a 10% decrease, according to a FRAC study.
- The majority of that drop (82.7%) came from three school districts: Broward, Duval and Pasco counties.
What's next: School districts across the country are starting to see the share of students participating in programs like SNAP decrease — a ripple effect from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut SNAP funding, said Hysom.
- As the number of students enrolled in SNAP decreases, so does a school district's ability to rely on CEP.