Fuel Costs Pushing School Lunch Prices Higher

By: Philip Jones/Eyewitness News 9 | WNCT-On Your Side
Published: May 16, 2008

The cost of fuel is driving prices higher everywhere you look these days -- and now school meals are the latest casualty in the east.

Thursday night, Craven County’s Board of Education approved a 15-cent hike in meal prices for next year -- a move fueled by shrinking budgets and high gas prices.

In this Assignment Education, Nine On Your Side's Philip Jones has more on the east's cafeteria crunch.

With gas prices soaring, footing the bill for healthy foods is leaving school systems across the east with a sour taste in their mouths.

“We're operating at a loss this year of over $130,000, and we cannot continue to do that,” said David Clifton, with Craven County Schools. “So we have to pass it along.”

In Craven County, “passing it along” means increasing meal prices for the first time in four years.

The system held off on the increase as long as it could, but folks here say the math is simple -- suppliers are facing higher fuel costs, and they're passing them along to the schools.

To make matters worse, Carteret County’s Linda Fairchild says school systems don't receive any state funding for food -- so ingredients, employee pay and equipment costs all come straight out of the cafeteria cash register.

“It's getting harder and harder,” Fairchild said. “And I can tell you that probably every county in the state has really felt the punch and everybody has lost money this year.”

School systems across the east say they're doing their best not to raise their meal prices, but it's a challenge. In Carteret County, for example, prices have stayed the same, even though the milk supplier has raised its rates seven different times this year because of soaring fuel costs.

“We're going to try to tighten our belts and see what we can do before we pass anything else along to the parents, because we know the parents are in the same boat we are,” Fairchild said. “They're struggling.”

And until the cost of gas comes down, expect more meal price hikes to be on the menu throughout our area.

Fairchild says she will be meeting with several state legislators next week in hopes of getting the general assembly to help fund school meals.

Meal price increases can also be expected in Lenoir County. Pitt County says its meal prices will stay the same next year.