By Karl Hays, Co-Managing Editor
It’s always the worst feeling. You’ve been criss-crossing campus all day, using whatever precious energy you have left from breakfast that morning to study, take notes, and pay attention in class.
Your stomach is rumbling and it can only be satisfied by something cooked to golden-brown perfection, but there’s just one problem, you only got a few bucks in your pocket and that side of french fries alone will probably cost a few. Everything you see is out of your budget.
Okay, don’t panic – just head over to one of the convenience shops on campus, or maybe even a vending machine. Disappointment rears its head yet again, because some of those snacks cost more on campus than at the 7-Eleven on Victoria.
This is a problem encountered every day by Toros like sophomore computer science student Brianna Aguilar.
“I don’t understand why prices for items in the vending machine or in the snack stores are so overpriced,” Aguilar lamented. “It feels like a big ask to pay so much for something so little usually. It’s hard to justify paying for snacks that are cheaper somewhere else.”
Food prices on campus have become too hard to swallow. Picking up a half-way decent lunch on campus during the week can get pretty costly, especially for students watching their wallets. If you’re anything like me, you’re dropping at least a Hamilton on lunch most days, which adds up pretty quickly when it’s time to go over your bank statement.
“I work part-time, like two days out of the week, and it can be rough seeing the few dollars I have, get spent on food that costs more than I would like to pay,” said junior Brandon Anderson, who studies business administration. “But it is really the only option.”
Anderson sometimes packs a lunch, but he often finds himself dining at one of the on-campus restaurants, where he spends far more than he’d like.
“I bought a chicken wrap the other day for like $8,” he recalled. “I can tell when I looked at it that it was definitely not worth that much, but I bought it anyway because I was hungry.”
That said, meal plan cards are available to students at different price points – you even get an extra $10 added when you purchase the $100 card. The reloadable cards are provided by Urban Mosaic Food Co., the on-campus food provider. But here’s the catch: the cards can only be used at CSUDH dining locations, meaning they cannot be used at Loker for a six-inch sweet onion teriyaki from Subway, or a side order of orange chicken from Panda Express.
All things considered, there just aren’t enough affordable food options on campus. Some Toros are on campus all day, but when it comes to finding a healthy meal between classes, it seems that the university’s prerogative is simply that food is fuel. They could go off campus to somewhere like Raising Cane’s, but that takes time – and you might have to park far away when you come back!
Admittedly, I don’t know what the answer is, and I am not exactly sure what the university could do to bring down the cost of food on campus. What I do know is, Toros are getting the one-two punch when it comes to food at and around CSUDH. Not only are folks paying high prices at the check-out counter, they’re also paying more for uninspiring options on campus.
If they haven’t already, perhaps the university could convene a regular task force to survey students, faculty, and staff to better understand what they’d like to have available. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen anyone grab something from the Farmer’s Fridge machine, but maybe my stomach was rumbling too loud for me to notice.
