Inflation making its way into student dining services at MSU

• MSU Food Services produces an average of 40,000 meals a day for students at MSU, purchasing on average, $44 million of food each year.
• Just like you would see in your local grocery store, MSU's Food Services continues to see price hikes among popular food items, "Chicken prices are high, Egg prices are high. Actually, we are finding that Cocoa prices are high right now," explained Dawson.
• Video shows the inside of MSU Food Services warehouse.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

40,000 meals daily is what MSU Food Services prepares for students during the school year.

I'm your MSU neighborhood reporter, Lauren Lendzion.

With inflation top of mind for so many businesses, I decided to dive into how it's impacting university dining halls like the one right here at MSU.

"We're sitting on, right now today, $1.4 million in inventory, in here," said Associate Director of Support Services at MSU, Stacey Dawson.

Inside this 90,000 square foot warehouse, MSU's food services building holds roughly 44 million dollars of food inventory a year.

And just like you would see in your local grocery store, MSU's Food Services continues to see price hikes among popular food items, "Chicken prices are high, Egg prices are high. Actually, we are finding that Cocoa prices are high right now," explained Dawson.

I took all of this information to MSU's Director of Student Life and Engagement, Kat Cooper, to see how the price hikes being felt in-house impact the rest of the spartan community, "Food cost is a piece. Wages are a piece, and then of course we need to reinvest any leftover money into our facilities to make sure they're vibrant for generations of Spartans to come," said Cooper.

And for many, the effects will be felt on campus beginning this fall.

Following a recent vote by the MSU Board of Trustees to increase student living costs, incoming freshmen students living on campus will pay nearly 7% more for housing and dining this fall, making it the second straight year of 7% hikes.

That means the Silver dining plan will go up by 476 dollars per year.

Cooper says, the university continues to plan and forecast student dining prices in advance according to projected food costs, but can never be 100 percent sure where they will land.

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