The lunch box will cost 770 TL.

Approximately 20 million students from primary and secondary education institutions attached to the Ministry of National Education (MEB) begin the 2023-2024 academic year today. Parents trying to cope with office supply costs will also be trying to fill their children’s lunchboxes starting today. School cafeterias attract the reaction of parents due to their high prices.

In Turkey, where millions of families are trying to make ends meet on the minimum wage of 11,402 TL, with the opening of schools, children’s lunch boxes have become one of the biggest problems for families. While nutritionists point out that school-age children should have milk and eggs for breakfast every day before going to school, the cost of the simplest bag packed for school exceeds 50 Turkish lira. According to our calculations, the weekly cost of menus containing fruit, a simple sandwich and milk reaches 192.42 TL and the monthly cost reaches 770 TL.

AN APPLE COSTS 8.2 LIRAS

In Turkey, which has witnessed the highest summer inflation in history, minimum wages and pensions remain below hunger limits, while children’s needs for adequate and balanced nutrition cannot be met in the schools. He has to allocate 6.70 percent of his minimum wage for a lunch box that costs 770 TL per month. The price of 1 banana that should be in the lunch box is 19.98 TL, the price of an apple is 8.23 ​​TL, while the price of 200 ml of milk that should be placed in the lunch box is 9 TL. Nowadays, the cost of the simplest sandwich is 16.75 TL and the price of a roll to put in the students’ lunchbox is 10 TL.

Inflation in education is 48.6 percent

According to data from the Turkish Statistics Institute, food prices increased by 8.48 percent in one month in August, while annual food inflation reached 72.86 percent. The annual increase in education prices, which was 48.61 percent, increased by 3.11 percent in August, when school preparations had not yet fully begun. According to data from the Istanbul Planning Agency, the stationery basket for kindergarten and daycare, which last year cost on average 900 TL, increased to 1,900 TL, the basket for primary school increased from 800 TL to 1,500 TL and the basket for high school increased from 1,000 TL to 1,750 Turkish lira.