WAUSAU – As the 2023-24 school year came to a close Thursday, Wausau School District students carried a lunch account debt even after the disbursement of funds from a recent community fundraising effort.

Combined, students still owe $832.21 on lunch accounts, Diana White, communications coordinator for the district, told a Wausau Daily Herald reporter Thursday.

Yauo Yang, a Schofield pastor and parent of six Wausau School District students, raised over $26,000 via a GoFundMe campaign to pay off student lunch account debt in both the Wausau School District and neighboring D.C. Everest Area School District. In mid-April, when the campaign began, Wausau School District students held $10,925 in lunch account debt.

Students typically gain lunch account debt in two ways, Karen Fochs, the district’s nutrition services director, said during a May meeting of the district’s Education/Operations Committee. One way is students who are eligible to receive free or reduced-cost lunches do not complete the paperwork to receive the cost relief, and the other way is from a two-night stay at the school forest that includes seven meals and two snacks.

The stay at the forest includes two breakfasts, three lunches, two suppers and two snacks and costs $23.05 for a fifth-grader and $11.50 for a fifth-grader who is eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches, according to White.

Students who eat breakfast and lunch in the Wausau School District will also see the cost of those meals increase next school year. Increases in meal costs for the 2024-25 academic year discussed during the May Education/Operations Committee meeting include a 25-cent hike on elementary school and staff/visitor breakfasts, a 10-cent increase for middle school breakfast and high school breakfast and lunch, and a 5-cent increase for elementary and middle school lunch.

The price hikes are needed to respond to increased costs of food, kitchen supplies and labor, Fochs said.

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Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA-TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wausau School District ends year with student lunch debt balance