Utah State’s dining halls offer unlimted buffets to students. (Shanie Howard)

USU students react to Dining Services price increase

Utah State University Dining Services’ decision to raise meal plan prices in 2017 was met with mixed reactions from students.

In December, Dining Services’ staff members decided to increase the cost of meal plans and the cost to purchase a meal at the Junction or Aggie Marketplace dining halls on campus by about 5 percent.

Alan Andersen, the director of Dining Services, said the prices needed to be increased because of inflation.

“Prices go up, that’s the nature of the beast,” Andersen said. “We want our guests to have a great value, but at the end of the day we still have to pay our bills.”

In addition to increasing prices, Dining Services also increased the cash equivalency of its meal plans from $6.50 to $7, which allows students to purchase $7 worth of food anywhere on campus for the cost of one meal.

“I’m happy they raised it,” said Katasha DeGraw, a freshman at Utah State. “I get more stuff, but it sucks because they didn’t give much warning.”

Andersen said Dining Services began advertising the change in December using brochures and pamphlets but students like DeGraw never saw any of them.

Students such as junior Leisl Roberts, who use their meal plan to get food at the campus dining halls had a less mild reaction to the change.

“It’s just more money to fork out and that sucks,” Roberts said.

Students are able to purchase meal plans at the Utah State card office. Employees at the office declined to comment on how they have seen students react to the increase.

Andersen has challenged students who are unhappy with the price increase to find a better value anywhere else.

“Yes, the prices went up, but show me where you can find a better value,” Andersen said.

Andersen said he has compared Dining Services’ food prices to other buffets in Logan such as Chuck-A-Rama, HuHot and Pizza Pie Cafe and still hasn’t found a better deal. The average price of those places is about $10 for lunch and $13 for dinner.

Another change Dining Services has made this semester is a new push to better label the food they serve.

“We want a customer to walk up and not have to ask if it’s gluten free, vegetarian or dairy free,” Anderson said.

The new labelling system uses the initials VEG for vegetarian, GF for gluten free and DF for dairy free options.

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Photo by Shanie Howard