Torin Mitchell Mehta, a first-year Sports Management major and international student from Scotland, explains his feelings towards Mercer’s cafeteria food and prices at the school saying, “I believe the price and quality of food is generally quite appalling. Considering how many student athletes are in this school, I am quite shocked on how scarce the options are for a healthy meal.”
Mehta continues, “If you are lucky enough to find a healthy option, get ready to sell your kidney for it. The prices are quite outstanding and embarrassing to expect students to pay for it.”
Mehta isn’t the only one who is concerned with the cost of food at Mercer. In a VOICE survey of 30 MCCC students, when asked about the food prices in the cafeteria, more than 86% said they thought the prices were not fair.
When looking at the cafeteria prices at MCCC, a protein salad costs $6.99, a breakfast sandwich costs $4.29 and a deli sandwich costs $6.49.
Mehta says, “Six dollars to buy a sandwich, while Doritos are two dollars? No wonder people choose the unhealthy option.”
When asked if she felt the prices at the college cafe were fair, college President Dr. Deborah Preston responds, “I honestly do not know what the going market rate is. I think I know that we are using different companies for the cafeteria and for the vending machines.”
Dr. Preston adds, “Working with a vendor is about the constant balance of what they can afford to provide and what we can subsidize. We could lower the prices but then the food would not be as good, which therefore means if they were to get higher quality food, the prices would get higher too.”
Dr. Preston says that since the COVID-19 lockdown ended, there have been more students on campus and more people using the cafeteria. She hopes the increase in purchases will give the school flexibility on price and options in the future.
The cost of cafeteria food isn’t the only complaint by Mercer students according to the survey. Sixty percent of MCCC students said that they don’t like the cafeteria food while 90% of students said they want either a Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, or Wawa on campus.
Elias Ruano, an international student from Spain and goalkeeper for the Mercer Men’s soccer team, was one of the students surveyed who was unsatisfied with the food. He says, “As athletes we need good food to perform as best as possible. There is too much fatty food.”
The wish for new food options at Mercer is also shared by MCCC President Deborah Preston.
Dr. Preston says, “I have been talking to the people who oversee the food service at the school and when I first came here, I told them I wanted a coffee shop. That option was not available, because the school volume was not big enough.”
As far as fast food franchises like Wawa, Dr. Preston says a certain volume of people need to be on campus long enough in a single day buying food in order for the franchise to be profitable.
Dr. Preston continues, “Therefore, you will never get it at a non-residential community college, because students are not on campus long enough.”
Although having a fast-food franchise on campus is unlikely, Dr. Preston sees another possible option. Her idea, which she based on The College of New Jersey, is to have a franchise right off campus, so that the customer base is not just limited to students. This would increase the likelihood of profit.
Preston says, “But for that we need to check the zoning law to see if we would be allowed to do that and I already have someone looking into that.”
Now, with a growing student population, there is more talk about necessary changes. Dr. Preston says, “I have a meeting with the food service people [the week of February 12th] to speak about what is going well and what needs to be improved.”
In the meantime, the student’s at MCCC will have to continue buying from the cafeteria if they wish to eat on campus.
