ALPENA — Immanuel Lutheran School on Thursday ended its lunch program at least for the remainder of this school year, according to an email the school sent to families on Wednesday.

In the email, the school informed parents that the school will no longer be able to maintain its national school lunch program because of the rising cost of groceries.

It wasn’t immediately clear from the email if the lunch program would resume next school year. Immanuel’s last day of school, according to the 2023-24 school year calendar, is June 7.

Immanuel Lutheran Schools could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

“Our National School Lunch program will officially end for the school year at the end of this week,” Immanuel Lutheran School said in an email sent out to parents. “Unfortunately, the lunch program has been reporting a loss for quite some time. As many of you may have noticed, grocery prices have had a dramatic increase over the last few years.”

Additionally, all of Immanuel Lutheran School’s cafeteria employees will be let go.

According to the email, beginning on May 20, the school will have to reach out to emergency contacts if a student doesn’t have lunch for school.

The school said it will continue serving breakfast while it can, and will look into other options to start providing lunches again.