Colleges dealing with rising food costs
Harvard junior Daniel Demetri was outraged when he noticed the changes.
"It was like, who are they kidding?" he said.
Actually, the university with the roughly $35 billion endowment was just doing what many other schools are doing in these tight times. The nation's rising food costs are stirring up problems for dining halls and cafeterias, and institutions serving thousands of people a day are trying to find ways to cut costs while maintaining quality.
At Harvard, it didn't last. In the face of outraged students demanding their whole grains, it restored most of the items. But other places have stuck with the changes, or found more affordable ways to feed students.
Several schools have eliminated trays, on the theory that students will grab less if they have to carry the food in their hands. Still other schools, which charge students by the item, are increasing the cost of healthier choices.
Food prices rose more than 4 percent in the United States last year, the biggest jump since 1990, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A similar hike is predicted this year.
At the University of Utah, food is often purchased in bulk, therefore eliminating a lot of the per-item spending, according to spokesman Remi Barron. There are no plans at the U. to increase costs to students or cut down on variety there.
Barron said that the U.'s food services perhaps doesn't deal in such high quantities, given that most of the students commute to campus rather than live and eat every meal there, like at other schools.
Weber State University, however, may be reconsidering what they offer to students and at what cost. Contractual agreements don't allow price changes to take effect until a new school year begins, but the summer will be spent researching options and re-evaluating costs.
Weber State is a customer of one of the world's largest food-services divisions, Sodexo Inc., which bought into Marriott's food-services partnerships years ago. Sodexo recently challenged its 300-plus member schools to go without plastic serving trays, saving thousands of gallons of water and the electricity used to wash them. The move, initiated on Earth Day, also aims to cut back on overhead costs, eliminating the need for replacement trays.
"Campuses that have tossed the trays also report reduced food waste," said Tom Post, president of campus dining for Sodexo. Minimized packaging is also a target for Sodexo's food and environmental platform.
You can be the first to comment on this story.