On campus food is too expensive for 3 meals a day: U of T students

Students at the University of Toronto are once again raising concerns about the soaring prices of food at on-campus dining halls and say it’s contributing to ongoing food insecurity for those attending the school.

They say the introduction of a pay-by-weight system at the New College and Chestnut residences is making it difficult for many to afford three meals a day on their meal plans.

“It’s almost $3 for a hundred grams of food. So if the average nutritional guidelines recommend about 600 grams of food, it’s pretty easy to see that a meal can exceed $20,” explains former residence don and PhD student at the university Mike Lawler.

He says on average, a student meal plan can afford $25 a day for all meals but when paying by weight, that budget is unsustainable.

“Students are paying for things like salad dressing, maple syrup or table syrup, condiments, all that kind of stuff is paid per weight,” he says.

“We’re also talking about things like pasta and white rice. So if I can go to No Frills and buy a bag of white rice for $15, why am I paying $3 for a hundred grams of it?”

Students who prefer not to be identified say it’s becoming very difficult to eat healthy on campus.

“[Students are] not getting the protein they need because meat is very dense, it’s very heavy. They’re not getting vegetables because things that are steamed are soaked in water that can sometimes come to like $20 just if you’re getting like bok choy or steamed vegetables in your dish,” says Emily (name changed).

“Day to day here, specifically at New College, we have a lot of athletes and particularly high performance varsity athletes … who have been advertised a meal plan that is going to cover all of their needs as athletes. One entree is costing these athletes 20, 30, sometimes even $40 — they can’t afford to eat here at the dining hall.” adds Ruth (name changed).

“They’re scrambling to fill calories in and it’s bad when you know that it’s more affordable to go to Starbucks.”

Same fight, different year

Lawler says this isn’t the first time the university has tried this payment model. Students and staff organized against a pay-by-weight system back in 2020 when it was introduced along with other COVID-19 related changes.

“At New College and Chestnut residents, they had an all-you-care-to-eat model, which meant that students paid one price at the start of the year and they had unlimited access to whatever they needed. So in 2020, they changed to a declining balance model and a pay-per-weight model,” he says.

Lawler says he and fellow dons at the time quickly realized that students would run out of money on their meal plans under this model.

Students and staff rallied through petitions and awareness campaigns “to get the university to recognize that they were implementing a system that would have implications for food insecurity.”

Following the outcry, the university walked back some of the changes.

“A number of the most egregious policies were changed. They removed pay-per-weight, they put in combo meals so students could eat for $24 a day — [the daily amount for three meals at the time],” Lawler adds.

But just three years later, they find themselves in the same fight, battling the same policies.

“What we’ve seen is that as myself and other folks have moved out of the university residence and that institutional knowledge is leaving Food Services, U of T is re-implementing many of the most egregious kind of price gouging features in their dining hall.”

Lawler and other students have now launched another petition to ask for what he calls “really basic” changes.

“It’s the fourth [petition] we’ve done. Essentially what we’re asking for is removal of pay-per-weight and a kind of option for students to eat three meals a day for $25,” he says.

Mental health implications

Students say that apart from being unable to meet their nutritional needs, having to weigh every morsel they eat has enormous mental health implications as well.

“Even residents who aren’t athletes are struggling with things like disordered eating [because of] having to weigh their food, particularly when the current model doesn’t allow for students to eat a proper amount of food per day, just strictly volume and weight wise,” says Ruth.

“I know this working in residence for three years — students with eating disorders, disordered eating — imagine every time you go up for a meal having it weighed. It sets a really weird relationality,” adds Lawler.

“I can only imagine if someone has a preexisting eating disorder, if they’re looking at every little piece of that food — that’s going to exacerbate it, that’s going to have very real consequences for their health,” echoes Emily.

She adds that fellow students say they’re anxious about eating enough daily and worry about stretching their meal plans to cover the school year.

“People have not been able to eat more than one meal a day if that even. [They’ve] talked about concerns about making it through the school day, feeling hungry, about not spending additional money,” she says.

In a statement, the University of Toronto tells CityNews:

“We strongly encourage any student who is experiencing financial challenges, including food insecurity, to contact their registrar’s office for immediate support. We offer a range of resources and supports to ensure that no student who is admitted to the University of Toronto is unable to enter or complete their program due to a lack of financial means.”

Emily says the university supports in place are simply not enough.

“A lot of international students who are on my floor … are worried that once they run out of money, there’s no more to pull from, there’s no more top-ups, there’s no more resources they can use and the resources at the school are just not enough to cut it. So they’re mostly concerned about eating to survive through the day and that, as a student, is a very troubling thing.”

“Paying more for less” and lack of transparency

Lawler adds that the quality of the food has also noticeably declined and there are fewer options on offer.

“Students used to have a different lunch and dinner entree. Now they have the same meal for lunch and dinner four days a week. And the other three days a week they have one other entree,” he says.

“So in addition to the enormous price increases that the university and Food Services is putting on their students, we’re also seeing students being given a lot less variety. In terms of the kind of options and flexibility that they have, they’re paying more for less.”

The university says their intention was the opposite. In a statement, they said in part:

“We made this change to increase the variety of food options available to our students by allowing them to put together and customize their own meals at self-serve stations. This model also better accommodates students with diverse eating habits, dietary and cultural preferences, and food allergies.”

They added that they also have grab-and-go items and plated food options at fixed prices.

But students say no one asked for these changes — they were made unilaterally with no student consultation.

“Oftentimes when we hear about these changes, it’s after the fact, it’s after we’ve purchased the meal plan. They knew that this was a change, but they let us pay for meal plans that were based on an older model that was more equitable,” says Emily.

“And then they didn’t even tell us about how much the weight rate was. So it’s $2 and 89 cents per 100 grams — that’s really not a lot for the cost that it is. And none of us knew this. It definitely feels like a bait and switch.”

A lack of transparency and engagement with the student body is one of the main issues that chef, author and activist Joshna Maharaj pointed out when the university engaged her as a consultant in early 2021 when students raised their concerns about dining hall policies back then.

“My recommendation first was to really listen to what the students are asking for because they were clear with their demands — there was no question about what they were looking for … the problem is these folks don’t really want to listen to these students. They make space for things like a student advisory committee, but then they don’t actually involve them in any conversations or decision making,” she says.

“Just listen to them, take them seriously. Understand the crucial role that food plays in nurturing student wellness and academic success. Both of those pieces are connected — this is not just about filling tanks and selling food to students. Yes, they need to eat three times a day at least, but their eating experience has a direct impact on their academic success, and that is the piece that the university should be more concerned about.”

Emily adds that dining halls are an important part of the student experience and that aspect of university life has now been soured.

“Food is such a culturally important thing for students — people are now avoiding the meal hall just because it’s a source of stress in their life now. Ultimately it takes a lot of those good memories out of university,” she says.

“I know as people often inquire about what university they should attend, food and the dining halls are a big role in that. And if this is the information that’s shared — that it impacts the experience here and the livability here — I really think that it’s in the university’s best interest [that] it should be much more centered on the student health and the student experience.”