Good food, bad prices

Tasty cafeteria food is too expensive says guest columnist Ryan Thompson

The cafeteria offers dozens of different lunch selections, but buying lunch every day costs too much in the eyes of guest columnist Ryan Thompson.

Eilidh McGarva

The cafeteria offers dozens of different lunch selections, but buying lunch every day costs too much in the eyes of guest columnist Ryan Thompson.

Ryan Thompson, Guest Contributor

$1.25, $1.25 for one tiny little cookie, just one. There has got to be a limit, our parents only have so much money after all. Worse, a burger with nothing on it is at least $2.00 not counting the water, milk, or juice you might wash it down with, or the fries, salad, or fruit you would want for a side. It’s simply too much for a meal we buy five days a week.

Sure, students can bring their lunch but then they would have to buy everything they need, then either before bed or before school, make their meal. And bringing your lunch is a waste because there is so much food that would be so much smarter money wise if they’d just lower the prices to a reasonable level. Besides who wants to stand in a long line to the microwave just to heat up your cold food when there are dozens of already warm, delicious kinds of food less than a foot away.

And who could possibly be satisfied with a burger, a small bottle of milk, and a tiny cookie? No, we want seconds, but do we get it? No, the food is so expensive we can’t afford to buy more because then we won’t have enough for the rest of the week and our parents will either have to splurge another week’s worth of money or leave us to starve until we get home.  

So now we have hungry students who can’t focus in class and start falling behind. Food gives us our energy and no one is at one hundred percent when their stomachs are empty and their temper is short.

This is not to say the cafeteria food is unappreciated. Just the opposite. That’s why it’s such a big deal; all that delicious food the lunch ladies work so hard to make deserves to be eaten. But fewer students are eating it because before the week is over parents have to put another $20-40 in their children’s account.

The request isn’t unreasonable. Simply lower the food prices that’s all it takes as  cookies should definitely be less than $1.00. It’s not to much too ask for.