For as long as I have been here at Capital, people have been complaining about food. First it was Parkhurst, now it is Aramark. The quality of the food is a constant topic in conversations across campus. But what not a lot of people talk about is the real price and value of the food we’re eating. Perhaps it is because it comes as a big lump at the beginning of the year that parents pay as part of the bigger amount that represents going to college. Or perhaps because it comes out of loans, so it is therefore a concern for the future and not for the present.
Regardless, I personally like to know what I’m paying for, and I think all of us should know what we’re paying for. Therefore I decided to do some simple math to see how much we really pay for the “commodity” of having a meal plan. The numbers I got were quite terrifying. Subtracting the $200 we get in CapBucks for the Block 75 Meal Plan, we end up paying $17.9 per meal. With the Block 150 Plan each meal comes out at roughly $13.75. And lastly, for the All Access 7 plan, assuming somebody eats 3 meals a day for every single day of the semester (which would mean about 324 meals), each meal would cost $7.50. Without a meal plan, a meal at the MDR costs $7.25 plus tax. That means that in order for a student on a meal plan to get close to paying the actual value of a meal, he or she would have to be on campus every day of the semester and eat 3 meals a day, everyday. Unlikely for a college student. And what if I know I won’t eat this many meals? Well, then I have to pay considerably more for my food.
Perhaps I missed something along the way. That’s why first I emailed Chuck Chapman, General Manager of Aramark here at Capital, to ask what factors were taken into consideration for the cost of meal plans. He only referred to me to the school, as he said the school is the one that sets prices on meal plans. I emailed Jennie Smith, Dean of Students, and did not get any response. Student Government, also, failed to respond.
It is required for first year students to have the All Access Plan, and for students living on campus to have a meal plan. We don’t even have the option to choose to eat something else if we don’t like the food served by Aramark. So we’re trapped having to pay a ridiculous amount of money for food we don’t like, and there’s no way to get around it. There’s no transparency in seeing where our money goes to and, from the lack of response from the school, a lack of interest in helping students.
The school should disclose what goes into deciding the price for meal plans and why there is such a huge difference between the different plans. And if there’s no reason for it to be so expensive, then prices should be lowered to a reasonable amount, or food quality should be raised to the level of an $18 dollar meal. Otherwise, there is absolutely no reason to have these ridiculous meal plans. If the lack of response from the University continues, a student initiative is necessary to make pressure and try to make a change. If an online petition is created and gathers momentum, then perhaps we can make the school rethink how it approaches catering to the students’ needs.
