Truman Ports normally eats a burger and french fries for lunch. If not that, then he orders a pasta dish and grabs a pastry. Usually that adds up to around $12, which for Potts is a little absurd.
“It’s like, why don’t I go out and get an actually good meal for a similar price?” Ports said.
Food prices at the University Center’s cafeteria are too high, students say. For some, it means going hungry; others say it may explain why some students resort to stealing.
Nearly every food item is priced over $7 in the University Center cafe, and some students living in dorms are finding the prices too high for what the New School’s mandatory meal plan supplies them.
“I always run out of money before the term ends,” said Lauren Hall, a second semester freshman at Lang. “Because everything’s super expensive, I have to budget.”
With nearly three weeks left of the spring semester, Hall is down to $40 from her original $770 meal plan through living at the Stuyvesant dorms.
She said she spends $20 to $30 dollars a week on food outside of school and in her hometown of Ventura, California, food is much cheaper.
“It’s the New School. It’s New York. It’s a very high-end school, we’re already paying so much, I’m not surprised the food is expensive,” Hall said.
UC Cafeteria staff and Jessica Roberts, the director of Operations and Sustainability who oversees the cafeteria’s operations, could only be approached with questions submitted in writing through the New School’s communications department and so could not be reached for comment by press time.
Some students say they cannot eat enough to feel full because of the cafeteria’s steep prices.
“It’s an inconvenience for me to have all this food here because I can’t even pay for a full meal to get nourished” said Parsons freshman Kierra Banker, while eating two bread rolls and a side of boneless chicken.
She said she’s seen students shoplift from the cafeteria–but she doesn’t blame them for it.
“It just gets where you get so hungry,” Banker said. “They just need something to hold them off.”
“If it wasn’t that expensive they wouldn’t do it,” Hall said. She said she’s seen students pocket food from the Cafeteria several times.
Having primarily natural ingredients might explain the steep prices.
Providing healthy, farm-to-table options and promoting sustainability are some of the New
School’s on campus dining objectives, according to the New School’s website, but Banker said she thinks that is why it’s so expensive.
Despite this, students do seem to enjoy the organic choices.
“I think it’s really good for a college,” said Hall.