Most students with flex meal plans often head to campus markets at the end of the week to spend their meal swipes, but recently students have noticed they’ve had to pay more out of pocket for groceries.
First- and second-year students are required to purchase a meal plan and upperclassmen can also purchase a plan. Flex Meal Plans can include 14 swipes, which costs $3,355 per semester or 20 swipes a week, which costs $3,740 per semester. Students can purchase Traditional Meal Plans for 10 swipes, costing $2,212 per semester, 14 swipes, costing $2,462 per semester and 20 swipes, costing $2,630 per semester, according to OU’s website. Traditional 10 Meal Plans are only offered to second-year students and above.
Flex Meal Plans differ from Traditional Meal Plans because students have the choice to spend their meal swipes at markets and dining halls, along with $225 in Flex Points that can be spent at most culinary venues. Traditional Meal Plans only offer students the option of eating at campus dining halls, Brick City Deli On The Go, located in front of Lindley Hall, or Smooth Moves at Boyd Market for a smoothie, fruit and pastry.
Students with Flex Meal Plans can use their meal swipes to buy groceries, which are worth $6.75. Nikki Wood, a senior studying philosophy, who has a Flex 14 Meal Plan, said she has had to dip into her additional $225 in Flex Points and sometimes out-of-pocket money when buying groceries because her meal swipes didn’t cover the inflated prices of groceries.
“When they didn't really tell us about it (increasing prices), and I had to pay my own money my first time getting groceries because it didn't cover the whole cost of them, it was obviously pretty financially debilitating,” Wood said. “For college students, even $40 or $50 is a lot for just a week or two.”
Spending meal swipes on groceries isn’t the only option for Flex Meal Plans, students can also use them at additional dining venues that include Earl’s Coop, in Shively Hall on East Green, Brick City Deli at Jefferson Market, The Hungry Cat, located at the top of Morton Hill, or any campus cafe. Flex Meal Plans also work at Latitude 39, West 82 and Life is Sweet, which are all inside Baker Center.
“If you do have a meal plan, the dining halls are all-you-can-eat and we’ve added a plethora of healthy choices in there,” Frank Pazzanese, executive director of OU Culinary Services, said.
According to Pazzanese, culinary is mandated by the OU Board and then governed by the state on how much money can be on the meal plans. He said since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, has steadily risen, and since OU is governed by the state, the CPI is an added factor in market prices increasing.
“All the Ohio public universities can only raise their room and board price by a certain percentage each year, and a lot of times we don't know that until after January,” Pazzanese said. “It's really hard for us to set pricing for the upcoming year.”
Kent Scott, director of auxiliary operations, said once they establish the prices in the markets throughout the summer, those prices are locked in for the year. Scott said most of all the items are not changing in price.
Every spring or early summer, Scott said they facilitate a price comparison between 150-200 of the markets’ most popular items and compare them to other grocery businesses in town. These include Kroger and Walmart, located along East State Street, Seamen’s, located along West Union Street, and convenience stores.
“We work with our prime vendor and we try to fall in the middle of that mix as far as prices,” Scott said. “Then we also work with other vendors, not just our prime vendor, but we work with other vendors to actually have lower prices in some areas.”
Scott said OU’s Red Bull prices probably beat everyone else’s Red Bull prices because the university negotiated for cheaper prices along with their national contract.
According to the OHIO EATS app, the price of a 16 oz. Red Bull is $4.29; however, at Kroger the price of a 16 oz. Red Bull is $4.
“It's really hard for us to compete against those big box stores,” Scott said. “When Walmart's bringing a whole truckload of stuff and they're just distributing it, they get a lot better pricing on it. We're never going to be able to really truly compete.”
However, Scott said OU’s markets probably have convenience stores along Athens beat for better prices. Although prices on brands like Redbull, Frito-Lay and Coca-Cola are a better comparison to Kroger or Walmart prices because they are partnered with OU and are not marked up, he said.
Pazzanese mentioned that when these named brands raise their prices, OU tries to find the breakeven point without raising their prices.
“We don't treat this as a business, when we lose money, we lose money for the university that doesn't go back into university,” Pazzeneze said. “Every dollar we lose, that's a scholarship that we don't support anymore.
He said he understands there is no control over the prices, but students do have control over what kind of brands to choose from. Pazzanese said there are more high-end brands, which are more expensive, but there are also cheaper brands for students to pick from in the markets.
According to a J.T. Hackney OU 2023-24 price book, many of the “mainstream” brands have increased their prices, but some have also decreased their prices. Most items have only seen less than a 0.50 cent increase, but some, including Kraft Mac and Cheese cups and salad options, have seen $1 increases.
Inflation is up more than 3%, according to the U.S. inflation calculator, and increasing market prices have forced changes in student spending habits.
“(Students) have to now make good choices and we want to give them enough options to make good choices,” Pazzanese said.
When it comes to raising prices, it’s harder to find cheaper, healthier options. Wood mentioned that she can typically afford only frozen meals.
“If you want your $6.75 to get two items or three items, then yes, maybe you have to do that but we do have affordable, healthy items that will fit in that range,” Pazzanese said.
Pazzanese said it is hard to eat healthy on a budget, but he said, in reality, people can’t find anything for $6.75 at fast food restaurants.
“We understand the struggle that it is and we're trying to do everything we can to find the breakeven points,” Pazzanese said.
