A significant percentage of Niles North students rely on the high school cafeteria lunches for at least one balanced meal per day. For these students, the recent increase in food prices came as a shock. Because students in general have little or no disposable income, the recent cafeteria price increases has hit North students particularly hard.
This past summer, OrganicLife was required to rebid for for the school’s business, along with other vendors. As the lowest bidder, OrganicLife remained the provider of food in the Niles North cafeteria, yet had to raise prices in order to not lose money.
Cost concerns also forced the vendor to scale back the menu. Green Plate Specials are limited to four stations, instead of the previous eight. Three of the four meals are fixed selections while the fourth varies daily. Although the healthy food has remained the same, students were upset by the increase in prices and the reduced menu. Some students felt that while the prices were going up, the quality and portions were going down. They didn’t feel that the existing quality justified the higher costs. “If the food price is rising, then so should the quality,” junior Alina Gofman said.
Principal Ryan McTague noted that the food prices were being raised to match the cost of the food itself, suggesting that the company was not making any additional profit.
As a result of the increase, some students have been discouraged from buying their lunch altogether.
“Last year I [bought] lunch every day but after seeing the prices on the first day I haven’t bought lunch once,” sophomore Matt Ginsburg said.
While this may seem a mundane matter, most students polled seemed to have a very strong opinion on the issue for good reason. This seemingly small increase in prices will have a cumulative effect on the students’ ability to pay for other necessities.
Christina Curtis • Oct 4, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Awesome article on such an interesting topic! Very informative!
Mrs. Zussman • Sep 18, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Very interesting article!