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Does your college food service company hurt the local economy?

Submitted by Hannah Caruso on Wed, 09/01/2010 - 15:48
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That is a key part of the class-action lawsuit against campus food service companies in Alabama. At UA every student must pay a $300 fee each semester for Dining Dollars. And it doesn’t matter whether they live on campus.  (Kind of like the University of Louisville).
$300. Not an outrageous sum, to the outside observer.
But the students suing the universities estimate that in the last year alone undergrads paid more than $14 million total in Dining Dollars. Some of that money could have helped local merchants survive. 
When this program began in 1996, it was viewed by many in the community as a “threat to local business” as stated in an article in the Tuscaloosa News. In fact, the “chamber of commerce and Tuscaloosa City Council came out against Dining Dollars,” fearing that it would draw business away from local restaurants.
As a result UA agreed to open Dining Dollars to three off-campus businesses. However, the restaurants have to give 21% of revenue to the campus food service company. Some restaurants say they can’t afford that percentage. (Here’s the contract between the University and the company).
Does your school’s food service company draw income away from local businesses? How do you think this affects the local economy?
 
Photo by Southernpixel. 

Catching Up

Submitted by Kyle Schafer on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 20:34
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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.
 
 
 
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