Brown Bagging Or Buying Out? School Lunch Costs Are On The Rise, No Matter How You Cut It

As if back-to-school season wasn't expensive enough, a new survey by Deloitte found that school lunch costs are on the rise for the 2025-26 school year.

The report looked at four school lunch options – a classic brown bag lunch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a convenience day with a pre-packaged lunch kit, a health and wellness day with a pre-made salad, and a contemporary day with a chicken and avocado quesadilla. It found that the average cost across all options was $6.15, up by 3% from 2024.

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The classic lunch option, with the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, was the cheapest option at just $4.84. However, it had the steepest increase when compared to last school year, up by 6% year over year, thanks to the rising cost of groceries.

"The high point of inflation was really around 2022, but grocery costs today are 20% more than they were five years ago," Deloitte U.S. Retail and Consumer Sector Leader Natalie Martini told CNBC. That's driving "a significant increase in the cost to bring a lunch from home."

There are a variety of ways respondents are planning to combat rising grocery prices, according to the survey. Switching from name brand items to store brand or private label products was the most common option, with 31% of respondents telling Deloitte they were planning to make that change this fall. Substituting cheaper options for more expensive items–27%– was another common cost-saving strategy, as was cutting other household expenses to free up money for food at 24%.

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Comparing the cost of homemade lunches to those provided by the school proves difficult, as costs vary widely by state and school level. However, Deloitte found that the average cost of a cafeteria lunch across the country was about $3.

With savings of around $3.15, why aren't more families opting for school-provided lunches as a way to cut back on bills? Answers vary. For about 69% of respondents, the superior taste of a home-cooked meal was the primary reason for bringing a brown bag lunch. Other respondents felt that bringing a lunch from home was a better value–63%– or liked that homemade lunches provided their children with more variety at 52%.

However, respondents did say that if certain things about school-provided lunches were to change they'd be more likely to opt-in to those programs. 

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About three-quarters of respondents said that if schools provided more fresh food, as opposed to the processed options currently on offer, they'd be more likely to have their children eat hot lunch. Additionally, 57% said they'd want to see more locally-sourced options before considering switching to hot lunch. In both cases, respondents wanted to see the changes happen even if it drove up the cost.

For many parents, cost isn't the only concern. Some 44% of respondents said that the question "what are we making for school lunch?" is one of their biggest daily headaches. Having healthy options they don't have to think about could be worth an extra dollar or two. 

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