Catching Up
Happy New Year, dearest Stir It Up readers. After some time visiting family, battling snow storms and catching up on other things over the winter break, we’re back to keep you up on all of your favorite campus food service news stories.
Last week, I was taking some time to read through stories in the food service industry press. While you may not like their politics, industry publications are actually pretty good sources to keep tabs on the food service companies on your campus. My magazine/website of choice for such purposes is Food Management.
Anyway, I wanted to share a couple snippets I belatedly stumbled across:
In 2009, the average cost of college and university meal plans went up by 6 percent. That seemed pretty steep to me, so I checked out how much the cost of eating out went up. Turns out, the cost increases on campuses far outpaced the year’s 2.1 percent inflation in the general “food away from home” category (you can always check out Consumer Price Index tables to track inflation).
So while costs are going up at a pretty quick pace, some colleges are forcing more people into meal plans. Back in May, we wrote about the University of Louisville forcing all students, including commuters, to buy meal plans. They aren’t alone. In December, Food Management reported that Barnard College will begin requiring all students to purchase plans as well. It may be a good trend for the companies, but not helpful for students trying to live more affordably off campus.
Not everything in the industry is depressing though. For example, the University of Alaska is growing some of the produce for its dining services right on campus.
We’ll leave it at that for now, but feel free to send us your own updates about food service on your campus anytime.
