High Cost of Gluttony

For the third time in three years, food prices have pushed board rates up. This time, Vice-President Reynolds hints that if the Dining Halls can't get out of the red on $14.50 per student per week, they will have to limit food portions.

We hope this does not happen. The College Dining Halls are one of the lass outposts of unrestricted gluttony--a privilege worth paying for--in the American educational system. The unlimited portions idea may be unjust to the light eater, who has to pay for more than he consumes, but the bulk of the students want more than the small portions dished out the first time down the line. Especially since many of the dishes are unattractive, it is important to let students stuff themselves with the foods they do like. And this is just what they do; the consumption of juices, milk, and ice cream in the Dining Halls is enormous.

Food purchases, however, make up only half the cost of Dining Hall operations. Food preparation, service, and book work take up a sizeable chunk. The Dining Halls should do everything possible to increase efficiency along these lines.

The great amount of food wastage shows a need for some efficiency at the tables, too. A renewal of last spring's anti-wastage campaign, with its effective, eye-catching signs in the Dining Halls, might help to cut waste. For, if unlimited portions at the lowest possible rates are to remain, students must stop taking more food than they eat.