Hungry Students, High Prices: Rising Meal Costs in the SUB

In the last two years, the price of food from suppliers has risen 20%.

The cost of student meal plans has risen 6% in that time.

Some students believe that’s too expensive.

These facts are from to Reid Fawcett, General Manager of Dining Services at North Idaho College. He said that the pricing increase is largely out of the school’s control.

“The price of food over the last year, even two to three years, has increased anywhere from 10-20% depending on the product,” said Fawcett. “A good portion of that increase is absorbed by [NIC], and a small percentage is then passed onto [the students].”

Rising prices have become an unfortunate reality in many aspects of life. The scope of reasons for price increases is global, with supply chain issues boiling down to large-scale geopolitics. An example of this is the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, a major producer of grain products.

So, before you blame anyone on campus, consider the hand the school has been dealt. 

Fawcett is a new player in the NIC dining game, having started in his position at the college only 6 months prior to this writing. Formerly, he worked for the Coeur d’Alene Resort, a famous neighbor of NIC.

Fawcett is experienced in the field of dining services and it’s clear he intends to bring his expertise to bear on the problems faced by school and student in the dining realm. He said a plan is underway to introduce a new dining plan specifically for athletes, accounting for their difficult conundrum of dependence upon the SUB paired with frequent absences for competition.

Fawcett explained that NIC considers itself a commuter campus, given its community college status. The college expects that a large number of students living in the dorms will travel home for the weekend- NIC offers a residence hall because it’s the only college serving the five northern counties of Idaho, and for some students daily commuting is too far. 

Because of that expectation, Fawcett said meal services on weekends are less substantial than what might be found at a bigger school such as the University of Idaho.

At U of I, the cheapest meal plan provides 8 meals per week plus 425 “meal dollars” and costs $1,980/semester- the most expensive plan is unlimited meals for $2,715/semester.

At NIC, the most expensive plan, offering 9 meal swipes per week with $550 “FLEX dollars,” is $1950/semester.

Lauryn Bulger is a sophomore golfer from Canada. She was frustrated at the food situation, and said she often struggles to make her schedule work with the mealtimes. Like many athletes, home is very far away, making her rely on weekend service from the SUB.

“Most days during the golf season, I generally just don’t eat [lunch or dinner],” Bulger said, and explained that golf practice often makes her miss the window to get dinner between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m.

“When I do eat, I pay with my FLEX plan,” Bulger said. FLEX is the name for meal dollars placed on a student’s meal card, and NIC allows students to load money onto their cards instead of buying meal swipes that can only be used week by week, for particular meals.

“I feel like sometimes, it’s outrageous,” said Muhammad Diallo, a soccer player. He cited a particularly frustrating incident in which he paid $7 for pineapple slices.

“Right now, I’ve got $19 left, and we still have one month to go,” Diallo said in regard to his FLEX dollars.

Students are able to load more FLEX dollars onto their cards, but many are nervous to ask their parents for more money, or simply don’t have the money at their disposal.

An obvious alternative to eating in the SUB is to do one’s own food preparation. In the dorms, that’s easier said than done, said another golfer:

“It’s difficult. I don’t think there’s [adequate] space to wash dishes, so it makes me not want to cook in my dorm,” said Megan Quinton, a freshman golfer living in the residence hall.

Her teammate, freshman Ava Young, said that although she buys groceries, they tend to sit and spoil due to the difficulty of preparing food in the dorms.

This isn’t a new problem, as rising prices have affected not just students but Americans across the country ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. So, in this small corner of America, NIC can’t do much about meal costs if it intends to stay in business.

While at U of I, meal plans are simply made more costly, that’s not necessarily in line with NIC’s philosophy. 

“One of our biggest focuses is to try and keep things as inexpensive as possible,” said Fawcett.

“I know that on the NIC side of things there are a lot of advocates in the corner of the students to keep prices as low as possible.”

If NIC is a rock and the SUB is a hard place, then some students in the residence hall are stuck. For now, to students like Diallo, it’s a difficult situation without a clear answer.