CASPER, Wyo. –– Rapidly rising fuel prices are eating into the budgets of Wyoming organizations that help local producers and those facing food insecurity.
“Transportation is not an easy task, and any one of my transportation routes is pretty much a 500-mile round trip,” said Eat Wyoming owner LeAnn Miller. “Our transportation is our number-one expense, and it is by far much larger than any other expense.” She added that current fuel prices are “killing me.”
According to AAA, average gasoline prices in Wyoming are $4.50 per gallon as of Wednesday, Sept. 23, slightly above the national average. Diesel prices in the state are around $6.20 per gallon, an all-time record high, the organization said. Fuel prices have surged as the U.S. war in Iran and Russia’s war on Ukraine have upended global supplies and markets. Additionally, recent unrest by Iran-backed Houthis has affected Saudi exports.
Eat Wyoming operates under an L3C low-profit business structure that emphasizes charitable and social missions by working with family-owned small Wyoming produce and meat producers to get their products to market. To make it work, Miller drives thousands of miles each year to growers around the state to collect their products, which are then redistributed from Eat Wyoming’s hub in Casper.
Her largest truck runs on diesel fuel and is now parked. “I can’t afford the diesel to run it, and it’s a huge truck,” she said. She currently relies on a fleet of gasoline-powered vans and box trucks, but the increased trips and rising prices are still cutting into her slim margins.
LeAnn Miller owns Eat Wyoming, which works with Wyoming’s small food producers to bring their products to market. Miller travels thousands of miles around the state. Higher fuel prices are eating into her small margins. (Courtesy Eat Wyoming)
“A lot of people want to buy the produce, but they don’t want to pay for the transportation,” she said. In the past she’s been able to secure transportation grants, but post-DOGE cuts in both government assistance and grants have all but eliminated that option.
Economies of scale come into play with small farms that produce smaller yields compared to commercial farms, she said. “If I go to Cheyenne or Laramie or Lander and don’t have enough product, then I have to cancel it. How do I get that product?”
Eat Wyoming works closely with Food Bank of Wyoming, which purchases food from multiple suppliers and tries to buy locally when possible. Its large fleet of diesel semitrucks trekked nearly 325,000 miles in 2025, distributing some 12.2 million pounds of food for more than 55,000 people across the state, according to its website.
With diesel prices currently above $6 per gallon, the added monthly fuel cost has skyrocketed by an additional $6,500, according to Executive Director Danica Sveda.
In addition, third-party companies delivering orders to the Food Bank’s hub from their suppliers are having to pass along transportation costs as well, she said. In total, she estimated that each month under current conditions is costing an additional $18,000.
“What’s hard about that is our budgets are pretty fixed, and the majority of our budget is going towards purchasing food,” she said. “When we have to pay more in those fuel and freight charges, it means we have to find that somewhere else in the budget, and we’re doing everything we can not to take it away from the food that we’re distributing to communities across Wyoming.”
The Food Bank is at the beginning of its new fiscal year, and unpredictable fuel prices are among its top concerns as the busy holiday season looms, she said. The spike in prices is adding pressure to an already difficult economic environment.
“Food costs are going up for us, and while we’re still getting donations from manufacturers and stores, the donations are decreasing, so we’re having to buy more at higher rates,” she said. “There’s also been a drought this summer, so drought-related issues combined with soaring fertilizer prices are raising the price of food as well.”
Those forces are hitting the small Wyoming producers that Eat Wyoming works with particularly hard, Miller said. “I’ve had five beef producers who have decided to shut down this year and next year because they don’t have the pastures for their cattle,” she said.
Earlier this year, the Torrington Livestock Market held extra auctions during what would normally be its slow season as producers rushed to offload their cattle due to drought conditions. The drought has meant smaller yields for vegetable and fruit producers as well, according to Miller, and tariffs — along with America’s trade war with Canada — have made replacing and repairing critical farming equipment more expensive.
Sveda’s concern for her clients — particularly those in rural areas of the state — goes beyond what the Food Bank provides. “They still have to drive sometimes 45 minutes to get to a grocery store or food pantry, and so while we’re feeling the impact, it means more people are getting closer to their financial edge,” she said.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s an end in sight. I hope there is.”
Related
Dining and Cooking