Jonathan Cruz (-- The Beacon)
By Jonathan Cruz
Among the student body, clearly there is growing frustration, especially within opinion pieces in the past few weeks, against Bon Appétit's absurd prices. Like all on-campus residents, I am a victim of heinous prices for the sake of convenience.
It is true: I am to blame. I like to eat, I cannot function without coffee and I like food that does not ding from a dimly-lit cave when it's done.
I signed up for the second meal plan ($1,750 meal points) – the same plan I had last year – because I made even last year and could still feed my caffeine addiction on top of feeding my stress-induced, growing-boy appetite. This year, in spite of the economic downturn, I signed up for the same plan, thinking that Bon Appétit was in it for the students. Maybe they are, I can't tell, but what I do know is that I ran out of meal points on Nov. 11. I've been spending money out of my own pocket since. I've changed my habits, sometimes eating once a day, which is not healthy for a young adult, who needs food to function in college, but economically smart on my part. I can barely afford this college – and now I can barely feed myself through the rest of the semester. Now, it's not, "What am I going to eat?" it's "How am I going to pay for food – how am I going to survive today?"
Yeah, I bought a coffee maker that never sleeps, I eat breakfast in my room, I snack instead of eating meals, but really? I'm forced into a system that has failed, and I have to climb back up with no help? I could mooch off friends and grovel for points, but why should I impede on others who have to go through the same situation? We are forced to pay more than $1,000 per semester to eat on campus (To be clear, my anger is not directed towards the Office of Residence Life, who, with good intentions, requires meal plans to ensure that students have a reliable balance for food to maintain healthy and caffeinated lives), but there are few to no buffers to prevent students from losing points quickly – and there is no remedy in place for students who do overspend. We just have to suck it up and deal with it.
To Matthew Abely ("Be angry with the government, not Bon Appétit," Oct. 17), it's idealistic, anarchy-inspiring, and damn easy to blame the government, as if Bon Appétit has no control over itself. In reality Bon Appétit had control on how it reacted to the government's policies, which were not consumer-friendly. We can't blame the government and let Bon Appétit slide by free of blame for its capitalistic ideals. If Bon Appétit wants to reward its loyal customers, perhaps they could have sales, or more discounts that relate to events, just something – anything – that puts money back in our pockets. We don't have a choice but to spend our points here. Bon Appétit knows this, but hasn't lowered the cost to eat in any way and decides to blame us – cool beans.
Today, I've had coffee (lots of it) and poptarts: I'm hungry, I'm relatively tired, I'm broke and, quite frankly, I'm scared. As the semester comes to a close, so do many people's accounts with Bon Appétit as they reach $0. What is Bon Appétit going to do about it next semester? Hopefully they do something impactful, and not shoot sh*t and watch students go to h*ll.
