Nutella was a childhood food stapple, but I didn’t even know it was possible to eat pomegranates until exchange kids tried to steal some.
Overall, though, colleges offer the food students enjoy. it’s the same with housing: kids have grown with their own bedroom AND bathroom, and expect similar comfort when they get to college. We can all regret the good old days and I agree some luxury items aren’t necessary, but the wide variety of meal plan prices doesn’t correlate with differing quality levels, just like costly dorms don’t always mean nice dorms.
The issue can thus be
1° only one expansive meal plan that is a good quality/good value overall - but too expansive for some students who’d choose another plan if it were offered => solution: financial aid? work study contracts? (since the reason there’s no other meal plan is to create the economies of scale that allow the contracted third party to turn a profit. Perhaps partly taken on by the college, partly by the third party, in exchange for operating a small after-hour dorm cafe that is likely to make brisk business with those who aren’t impecunious.)
2° several meal plans, all too costly unless one foregoes a meal => work study contracts?
3° low quality food => student involvement?
4° students expecting their money to go to regular high-end meal items (and not minding their parents paying for them?)
I don’t think there’s a 5°: decently priced, low-cost/low-budget food offerings.
Another issue is also students with religious/dietary/health limitations…
Yet another issue is where the food comes from.
Yet another issue is
An issue is that students don’t really have a choice, especially at colleges that require freshmen/students to live in the dorms. They don’t choose the quality of the food, if it’s frozen/all-fried all the time or cooked on the premise with vegetables from the farm work study students operate under the direction of college employees… regardless of the cost or the quality, they have to pay, and they don’t really have a way to gauge whether it’s a good value.
What if you paid Marriott prices for a run down motel 6, for example? Or would be fine with hostel-like conditions, but end up forced to pay W rates and can’t live at home to avoid that?