With tuition costs increasing more and more each year, and students expected to fork out an increasingly exorbitant amount for higher education, there is another rising cost associated with college that has seemingly gone under the radar. This cost is for something that no student can live without, and it has been steadily rising across American universities for the past decade: food. 

According to US News, the price of a meal plan usually ranges from $3,000 to $5,000 each year, with the most expensive plans surpassing $9,000. USC’s comparable plan, the Freshman Cardinal Meal Plan, is near the more affordable end of this range, costing $3,645 per semester. With a semester containing about 16 weeks, this averages to a whopping $32.54 per day. Freshmen at USC are automatically enrolled in this meal plan through the USC Housing contracting process.

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Compare this with the average of $4,942 per year — or $13.54 per day — that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a single person spends on food. USC students with the Cardinal plan are spending 140% more per day on food — more than double what the average American is spending. Even in an expensive city like Los Angeles, this is a ridiculous comparison for the plan that has the most bang for your buck.

The Apartment Meal Plan, which is the minimum plan required for all sophomores, juniors, and seniors living in USC Apartment Housing, is much more expensive when you calculate the cost per meal. Although it costs less overall, at $795 per semester, the plan only gets you 40 swipes and $150 in Dining Dollar credits. After removing the Dining Dollars — a prepaid balance accepted on campus and select USC Village locations — and doing the math for the cost-per-swipe, students with this plan are paying $16.13 per meal. 

This is somehow more expensive than simply paying cash to enter the dining hall, which costs $11.79 for breakfast, $15.79 for lunch, and $15.99 for dinner, which is still in no way a cheap endeavor. You could go to Chipotle and order a meal with a side of guacamole for less money. 

Moreover, this is hardly happening at USC alone — the average university charges $18.75 per day for a three-meal-a-day plan. A more expensive meal plan can mean more borrowing, and this results in tough decisions surrounding loans, housing and other conveniences for students at this school. This is especially true today when more and more students rely on communal college food pantries to keep them from having to choose between feeding themselves and paying for things like books. 

The truth is, the vast majority of colleges do not need to be charging so much for meal plans or entry into their dining halls. And when you consider the problems with understaffing, weekend closures and food shortages at USC’s dining halls, it’s imperative to start asking where all this money is going. 

It may not be going entirely towards funding USC Hospitality: According to Bob Shea, senior fellow for finance and campus management at the National Association of College and University Business Officers, college dining services are run as self-supporting enterprises. Like any other type of business, they’re expected to turn some form of profit for the larger institution. 

This means that many auxiliary dining services by universities are used as a revenue stream to further fund their organizations. These universities are making a profit from forcing their students into expensive meal plans.

The cost of meal plans should be at least comparable to the cost of eating at home, particularly when you consider the cost savings for USC from cooking and buying in bulk. If they cannot be made more affordable, then we need a lot more transparency as to why specifically this is the case.

What may seem like an inconvenience to some is a tremendous financial burden on others. At an institution that promises to care for its students and support those who are less privileged, it’s time we see changes in the way that they show this. When it comes to something as essential as food, students should not be forced to take out even more loans or make additional compromises.