Mandatory Meal Plan

For freshman at BYU living in Helaman Halls, I think one of the biggest problems they face is the single option they have for a meal plan. It is mandatory to have a meal plan, which consists of having a certain amount of money set aside each day to spend at the Cannon Center or at other surrounding places on campus.

One problem that this meal plan creates is the issue of kids not having the skills to budget their funds properly throughout the semester. On average, each day someone on this meal plan can spend around $17. That money adds up quickly though and some kids don't recognize how fast they are spending it.  By the end of the semester, they are out of money, expecting their parents to add more money to their account. College is already expensive enough without having to keep adding money to accounts for food.

With this meal plan there is so much food wasted in the Cannon Center.  Since it is a buffet style, kids get so much food, expecting that they will eat it, but they don't. I think a reason this meal plan is so expensive is because they are having to raise the cost to cover the amount of food wasted. On the other hand, with this buffet style, kids overeat. They feel like just because food is offered to them, they must eat it.  This is how a lot of freshman gain the infamous "freshman 15". If this type of eating plan was altered to a different plan, such as buying food "a la carte", it would encourage more healthy eating habits.

I know that in the past, people living in Helaman Halls, had many options of meal plans to choose from.  I think that by going back to having different options, the amount of food wasted and consumed will be minimized. This problem has an easy fix, but until it is somehow fixed, freshman will continue to spend more money than they have, eat more food than they should and create unnecessary amounts of wasted food.