Food Costs Soar For Family Of 900

The rising cost of food isn't just hurting families -- it's also hurting animals at the Kansas City Zoo.

With more than 900 mouths to feed, the zoo's food bill has ballooned to nearly $400,000 a year, zoo curator Liz Harmon said.

Mealtime for one elephant includes 300 pounds of fruits, vegetables and hay, and the zoo has seven elephants.

"They eat a lot, that's right," Harmon said.

Food costs are now 40 percent higher than they were two years ago, Harmon said.

"Energy prices are up, we pay more for food, and the floods certainly don't help anything," Harmon told KMBC's Dion Lim.

The zoo's growing animal population is also creating more mouths to feed.

The zoo also had to take a cut in the funding it gets from the city.

In spite of all the problems, the zoo said the animals won't go hungry.

"No, that won't happen. We make a commitment that we bring animals here to take care of them. If we ever got to the point where we couldn't take care of them, we'll send them to another zoo," Harmon said.

To make ends meet, the zoo will scale back on administrative costs, such as staff travel.

Meanwhile, the zoo hopes new exhibits will draw in more visitors and more donations.

For more information or to donate to the zoo, visit kansascityzoo.org.

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