POCKET PUNCH

School lunch prices leap upward to keep up with cost

School lunch for 25 cents? Juice for 10 cents?

Those days are long gone—and, now, so are the good old days of $1.25 school lunches.

With the new year comes new, higher prices for a public school lunch: $2.20 per day, to be exact.

“;The price for school meals shall be set by the Department (of Education) to ensure that moneys received from the sale of the meals shall be not less than one-half of the cost of preparing the meals,”; the new law says.

Regular student breakfast will rise to 95 cents. Subsidized students will now pay 40 cents for lunch, 30 cents for breakfast.

Parents and guardians, be sure to replenish your child's meal card—at $2.20 daily, it's going to get depleted mighty quickly.

HIT THE ROAD

The holidays are over; it's back to reality

It was a nice holiday, wasn't it? From the rush-hour traffic jams, that is. Those who continued to work while others vacationed understand.

With schools out the latter half of December and into the new year, and many adults taking time off, the easier morning and afternoon commutes were a gift unto themselves.

But motorists, brace yourselves. The holidays are over and it's back to work and school for many this week. So pack and plan ahead. Set those wake-up alarms earlier. Get that extra jolt of java.

Time to get back into the traffic jams, road warriors.