OAKLAND — Fruit leathers? Forget about it. And those pineapple spears served in the salad bar the other month aren't coming back, either.

The rising costs of fuel, grains and fresh fruit, paired with dramatic cuts in state spending, have made it harder for school lunch programs to live within their means. The trend hasn't forced radical changes to cafeteria menus, but food service directors say they won't be able to introduce as many new, healthy offerings, or to replace outdated equipment, as quickly as they had planned.

"We haven't pulled anything yet, " Jennifer LeBarre, the acting director of food services for Oakland schools, said over the din in the cafeteria shared by Esperanza Academy and Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy in East Oakland.

Still, LeBarre says she worries the phenomenon will slow the spread of salad bars and other improvements her department had planned with parents, students and local organizations.

Moreover, families in Oakland and elsewhere in the country might soon pay more for their children's midday meals. Come Monday, those who wish to purchase milk from Oakland schools will pay 40 cents, rather than 30 cents. School lunches in the district will likely be more expensive in the fall, as well. The Antioch school district recently raised its lunch price by 50 cents, while Hayward and San Leandro schools have announced they will keep the prices steady until at least 2009.

The changes will

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affect only those students who pay full price for meals —in Oakland's case, 29 percent of the student population.

LeBarre said the higher fuel costs — and fruit prices, for example — have prompted her department to replace imported or unseasonal offerings with regional, seasonal fruits and vegetables. That's not a bad thing, she noted, since it's an opportunity to teach children the value of consuming local produce.

That's exactly the message that Ann Cooper, Berkeley's self-described "renegade lunch lady," has been trumpeting for years. Cooper, a former East Coast chef and author, came to Berkeley in 2005 to rid the cafeterias of processed and frozen foods, such as chicken nuggets. Thanks to a contribution from the district's general fund — most school lunch programs are expected to cover costs with state and federal subsidies and sale profits — Berkeley children now eat meals prepared from scratch, with locally grown produce and the occasional "grass-finished" beef hot dog.

Cooper said she has experienced little of the price-increase phenomenon troubling her colleagues throughout the country. "When you don't bring a lot of stuff from far away, the rising gas prices don't hurt you," she said.

Unlike other lunch programs, Berkeley's uses very little refined flour, she said, and doesn't import any food from other countries. She said the price of organic milk has not risen — not yet, anyway.

"It's just the big market that's so volatile right now," she said. "I think the take-away is that the more you buy locally, the less at the mercy of the bigger system you are."

Contact Katy Murphy at 510-208-6424 or kmurphy@bayareanewsgroup.com. Read her Oakland schools blog and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/education.