BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Union County School District’s finance director said tariffs on foreign goods are driving up prices for products the district’s food service department buys.
Deborah Parrish told the school board during an October 14 workshop that the prices of plasticware, paper goods, and equipment purchased by the department have risen 24% due to the federal levies.
“They’re the first department that’s really come to me and said something,” Parrish said. “We are already getting hit there with higher food costs. Now we’re getting higher prices for sporks and just the equipment that they use. So, we’re trying to look at prices where we can. We’re asking for quotes and looking at competitive bidding, and we’ll just do the best overall to try to keep our costs down as we go forward.”
When asked by one board member about using reusable utensils, plates, and trays instead of disposable ones, Parrish responded, “Now we have to hire someone who’s going to sit there and wash the dishes. We also have the cost of the water and the sewer. So, you’re kind of balancing out there.”
Superintendent Mike Ripplinger, while consulting with Food Service Director Betsy Whitehead, speculated that it had been 12 to 15 years since food service workers had washed dishes.
“It’s something we’ll look at,” Ripplinger said of the idea, “but when we’re looking at our utility bills, you guys see the monthly checks and stuff like that, we can do a cost analysis on it. But again, when we look at our sewer bills, our water bills, they’re not getting any less. And then, when you consider the human cost of somebody… I don’t know if she would have the personnel to be now pulled away to go wash the trays, the forks, and spoons, and all of that.”
Parrish added that she is also seeing increased costs in paper products unrelated to food service.
“The paper that we print on the copy machine,” she explained. “The repair parts that we buy, we’re already seeing those things going up. You can’t run a school without toilet paper and paper towels.”
