When Amber Quiroga has a full schedule from early morning to late evening, she has to either pack food or spend money. As a student living off campus and having no time to go home and eat, Quiroga has very few choices.

Between classes, club meetings and homework, eating can be a challenging task to fit into a restricted schedule and budget.

USC students have eating options on campus, at the shops within USC Village and at surrounding businesses. For students living on and off campus, USC estimates they’ll spend $8,442 on food. But for students on a limited budget, eating can be difficult, especially for those who are no longer enrolled in a meal plan or are facing food insecurity.

“In the last couple of years, I think no matter which kind of food we’re talking about, there’s been a steady rise in prices, whether it be food that you purchase and prepare yourself, or food that was prepared for you,” said John Wilson, a professor of spatial sciences and sociology. In 2023, Wilson contributed to a publication regarding the ecological risk of food insecurity in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cardinal and Flex120 Meal Plans are mandatory for freshmen and upperclassmen living in on-campus housing, though prices for the student meal plans have increased by 5% in the last few years. For the 2025–26 school year, the Cardinal Meal Plan costs $4,219 per semester, and the Flex120 plan is $2,074 per semester.

Ethan Karten, a freshman majoring in economics and math, is on the Cardinal Plan and said he uses its unlimited meal swipes primarily at the dining halls and Tutor Campus Center.

“There are a good amount of options [at TCC]. It’s kind of frustrating that Panda Express doesn’t have any options for the meal swipes in specific,” Karten said.

Without a meal plan, TCC meals can cost anywhere from $9.99 to $20. At USC Village, eateries like Cava and Sweetgreen have prices ranging from $13 to $17 for a bowl. These are in the upper price range compared to other options at the Village, such as City Tacos, where one taco costs about $5.

Jenny Pietrzik, a junior studying communication, lives off campus and is not enrolled in a meal plan. She said she spends about $200 per month on groceries and eating out.

“[USC] could definitely do better on actually helping students and just making more affordable food options,” Pietrzik said.

Wilson attributes the rising costs of meal plans and dining options to recent inflation and the effects of tariffs.

“The difficulty with inflation is when prices, across the board, start rising … the things the farmer needs to buy to grow the food [are] getting more expensive, so in order to sell it, they need to earn more income,” Wilson said. “Unfortunately, when you’re at school, oftentimes you don’t have any income. You’re trying to prepare for a life in which you earn an income, and so the students are in, for a moment in their life, a vulnerable spot.”

With the rising cost of meal plans, the University offers some resources for students who are experiencing food insecurity.

USC Student Basic Needs offers support to students when they require food assistance, such as the Trojan Food Pantry, which provides more equitable access to food.

According to the Student Basic Needs website, to be eligible to access the Pantry, students must meet the requirements of being actively enrolled USC students, experiencing food insecurity and not having an active dining hall meal plan.

Quiroga, a junior studying business administration, said she first found out about the Trojan Food Pantry while visiting the First Generation Plus Success Center.

“I was talking to one of the staff there,” Quiroga said. “That was the first time I was ever hearing about it, and it was from the staff themselves. Even if there are resources, it’s not widely known.”

Quiroga said she averages spending $400 a month on groceries, eating out or buying food on campus. To save money, she said she tries to prepare her meals at home.

An emergency meal swipe program for students experiencing a short-term food-related emergency is also run by the Student Basic Needs department. The program allows students to load a limited number of meal swipes to their USCard that can be used at campus dining halls during the semester. Tommy’s Table is another program that redistributes food surplus from private campus events to students facing food insecurity.

However, for students who are not qualified for program benefits, campus food options remain expensive.

“[The University] has ways to give people a lift up,” Wilson said. “But they could be better socialized and advertised. We probably could be better at being more proactive because I’m sure even if we did the advertising, there are still some people that it doesn’t reach.”

Apart from on-campus initiatives, CalFresh, a food grant program funded by the state of California, offers eligible students up to $292 each month in SNAP or EBT benefits.

Students must meet specific income and social security guidelines to receive CalFresh benefits, such as receiving a Cal Grant, working over 20 hours per week or receiving federal or state work-study funds.

“[These programs] help uplift people with relatively modest means,” Wilson said. “Whenever you tighten that eligibility, then some people are going to be pushed out of that safety net, so their lives are going to become more precarious and harder.”

Despite USC’s current resources, Pietrzik said she still finds food options on campus out of reach.

“I feel there’s almost this assumption that, because we are USC and our tuition is so expensive, that everyone who goes here has money to spend,” Pietrzik said. “I’ll just go grab lunch, and it’s the amount of money I would spend on a whole day’s worth of food.”

Quiroga said she believes that USC should inform the student body through social media about the resources it provides so students feel more aware of the kinds of support accessible to them.

“What we could do as a University is to be more open and explicit about what kinds of help is available and then let people make their own decisions,” Wilson said.