NORTH PROVIDENCE – School lunches will cost more beginning Monday, Feb. 6, the School Committee decided Wednesday night, Jan. 25.

Elementary school lunches will increase from $2 to $2.25. Lunches at the town's two middle schools and at the high school will increase from $2.25 to $2.50.

The state Department of Education required the school district to increase the prices in keeping with the Federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which requires many school districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program to adjust their paid lunch prices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found that some districts charge less for paid lunches than the cost of producing those lunches, meaning that federal funds intended for free and reduced price lunches are being used to subsidize paid lunches.

Notices will be sent to parents advising them of the hike by early next week.