The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The high price of unhealthy eating at City College

The Channels Opinion Pages | STAFF COLUMN
Illustration
Antony Marchiando
Illustration

Being a student comes at pretty hefty price, so you would think that the college itself would try to help us out right? Wrong. Oh so very wrong.

Many students work around the clock just to make barely enough money to live and keep going school, so is it really necessary to charge over five dollars for a sandwich that’s a lot smaller (and not as good-tasting) as something I can get at Subway for the same price?

This school already makes millions off of its students. It seems ridiculous that we’re being charged such high prices for some lunch.

Five dollars for a slice of pizza, $3.75 for naked juice and $2.75 for a Santa Barbara Bar— what is a Santa Barbara Bar and why would they charge $2.75 for it?

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I understand that we all go to school in Santa Barbara, where the price of a single bedroom could get you a large house in the Midwest but we are still college students and our on campus food is certainly not worth these fancy Santa Barbara prices.

Oh, and if you’re trying to eat healthy or have certain dietary restrictions and still plan on buying your food on campus, I hope you have a trust fund that’s kicking in soon.

If I wanted to spend the amount of money it costs to get some salad and fruit, I’d rather just buy myself a new car.

Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but if I just finished a killer workout in the Life Fitness Center I really don’t want to spend 12 dollars on an average meal.

Now, healthier types of foods do cost a little more for the school to buy and I understand that some of the organic options should cost a little more for students to buy.

When the food is high quality, it makes sense to charge higher prices but students are being charged high quality prices, for sub-par quality food.

Even the build-your-own salads and fruits are over-priced and at the same time, school officials should be promoting the health trend instead of charging so much money that it pushes students to use their 10 percent discount-with-school-ID on a Big Mac up the street at the McDonald’s on Cliff drive.

The cafeterias aren’t the only places where you can find overpriced food on campus. Take the burrito place next to the east campus cafeteria for example. Now, I’ve never eaten there, so I can’t speak on the quality of their food but if I’m going to spend seven dollars on a burrito then its only going to be on the glorious masterpieces made by the wonderful angels sent from above that work at Chipotle. ­

Students shouldn’t have to be stressed out day after day hoping that they get a little extra money in their tip jar at work or searching through their couch cushions for a bit more cash just to have enough money to pay for a lunch that wont even fill them up.

With all the money that the college system is receiving from students— especially international students who pay an obscene amount per unit and make up a nice portion of the student population— one might think they could cut us a little slack and take food prices down a bit.

Reducing the cost of on campus food would help out students overall, especially those who are working multiple jobs only to be able to afford some top ramen at lunchtime.

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