Special Orders
Maria's Food Service provides meals that nonprofit organizations distribute to handicapped and elderly people. Here is her forecasted income statement for April, when she expects to produce and sell 3,000 meals:
$$
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|}
\hline & \text { Amount } & \text { Per Unit } \\
\hline \text { Sales revenue. } & \$ 18,000 & \$ 6.00 \\
\hline \text { Costs of meals produced. } & 13,500 & 4.50 \\
\hline \begin{array}{l}
\text { Gross profit } \ldots \ldots \ldots \ldots \ldots \ldots \ldots \ldots \\
\text { Administrative costs } \ldots \ldots \ldots \ldots
\end{array} & \begin{array}{r}
\$ 4,500 \\
2,100 \\
\end{array} & \begin{array}{r}
\$ 1.50 \\
0.70 \\
\end{array} \\
\hline \text { Operating profit } & \overline{\$ 2,400} & \overline{\underline{\$ 0.80}} \\
\hline
\end{array}
$$
Fixed costs included in this income statement are $\$ 4,500$ for meal production and $\$ 600$ for administrative costs. Maria has received a special request from an organization sponsoring a picnic to raise funds for the Special Olympics. This organization is willing to pay $\$ 3.50$ per meal for 300 meals on April 10. Maria has sufficient idle capacity to fill this special order. These meals will incur all of the variable costs of meals produced, but variable administrative costs and total fixed costs will not be affected.
Required
a. What impact would accepting this special order have on operating profit?
b. Should Maria accept the order?