How Trumbull school lunch program climbed out of six-figure deficits this year to turn profit
Donald Eng
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TRUMBULL — Betty Sinko hasn’t achieved the impossible, but she’s been making progress.
Sinko, the schools’ lunch manager, was already looking at a budget deficit this year due to financial irregularities detailed in an operational review. Then the program’s only revenue source, selling school meals, was taken off the table due to a federal program that made every child eligible for free meals this year.
Gov. Ned Lamont also mandated that school employees not be laid off during the COVID-19 shutdown, meaning the lunch program could not cut expenses. And the pandemic increased meal delivery costs as everything had to be individually packaged.