Here's Why Food Is So Insanely Expensive at College

[cobrat]

Food costs are largely reflective of the costs of the surrounding area. College aged kids eat a lot too. At Michigan the food is quite reasonable. An unlimited food plan runs about $20/day. The food is reasonably good and the cafeterias are open most of the day, and you go to any of them. You could not eat out at restaurants for anywhere close to that amount. I’d expect the east and west coasts to be 50% more just like restaurants.

That’s a lot cheaper than the average per meal rate I found with my LAC’s own meal plan or those of my HS classmates at other colleges which averaged between $6-$10/meal in the mid-late '90s when I was an undergrad.

And that’s if you subscribed to the 21 meal/week plan. Gets more expensive if you went to 14 or less.

And no, that wasn’t reflective of the costs of food/expense of preparation in those respective local areas as most of us could easily eat 2-4+ meals at restaurants for the same amount of money.

In my case, the price per meal at my LAC"s dining hall would have allowed me to eat 2-4 fine restaurant meals in my college town area and still have some change left over.