Food Services: Aggressive Monopolists?
The Department of Education is certainly
deserving of kudos for protecting Pine View students from
supposedly "unhealthy" foods and beverages. Apparently,
the prevailing wisdom is that Pine View students cannot be
trusted to consume Coca-Cola's carbonated beverage products in
moderation. With great luck, Pine View has managed to avoid being
overrun by crazed caffeine junkies.
However, one must wonder whether the Department of Education's
intentions were truly so noble. The replacement of carbonated
beverages with non-carbonated Fruitopia products is of marginal
nutritional value. It strains the limits of rational thought to
truly believe that the consumption of sugar-water with fruit
flavoring is significantly healthier than the consumption of
carbonated sugar-water.
Behind the facade of a newly discovered interest in student
health we can discover the interest in the all-mighty buck. That
fruit flavored sugar water is significantly healthier than
carbonated sugar water is much easier to understand once one
considers that Food Services will now profit from the vending
machines. Previously, vending machine profits went to a variety
of causes, including the Junior Class and student clubs.
Interestingly, no one has discovered a profound interest in
removing this Devil's brew from any other high school in the
district. Why? The Food Services program at Venice, Riverview,
Sarasota, and Booker are profitable, unlike the Pine View
program. Apparently the true meaning of "healthy" in
the context of our new "healthy" vending machine
products is that the vending machines are now healthier for Food
Service's bottom line.
Interestingly enough, few besides Food Services share such a
skewed perspective on health. Certainly our learned faculty does
not concur with this nutritionally warped view. Not surprisingly,
the faculty will remain unaffected by Food Services' latest
enormity. The Faculty Lounge still contains supposedly harmful
Coca-Cola products at the same 20% discount. Apparently, what is
excessively harmful to students is acceptably healthful for
faculty members. After all, few could imagine the day when Sue
Salzman did not have a Diet Coke in hand.
Even the Administration was struck with incredulity at Food
Services' healthy foods argument. George Kenney said that chronic
consumption of pizza is unhealthy, but noted that Food Services
offers pizza daily. Of course, Food Services' "healthy"
food choices are not limited merely to pizza. Food Services is
content to serve students a chocolate doughnut for breakfast and
a double serving of french fries for lunch. Because Food
Service's paramount concern is student health, these French Fries
often could be mined for salt and are bathed in grease. Not
surprisingly, the new Food Services vending machines offer
healthy choices such as Combos, which allow one to consume
one-fourth the RDA of salt in a single snack. Nevertheless, the
vending machines should prove to be remarkably healthy for Food
Services' bottom line, as the vending machines had average annual
profits of $8000-$10,000, according to George Kenney (see related
article "Tradition
of Excellence" Does Not Include Truth).
Unfortunately, it is not enough that Food Services' money
machine be fed at four of five area high schools. The
"solution" to Food Services' operating deficit at Pine
View has been to slam the doors on all forms of competition. It
is important to note that this is not a new tactic for Food
Services. In fact, Food Services has made a pattern of conducting
itself as an aggressive monopolist. Federal policy protects Food
Services from any type of competition during its operating hours.
Consequently, many student's food related fundraising have been
shot down. For several years, the professionals at Food Service
have been unwilling to tolerate competition from a club wishing
to have a bake sale or resell better pizza. For example, at the
old campus, Food Services forced the Speech Club to stop selling
pizza because the Alta Vista cafeteria could provide food for
Pine View. Whereas Food Services before blocked pizza sales
rather than investigate why students affectionately referred to
their food as "Alpo Vista," Food Services' replacement
of the vending machines is more analogous to barring students
from selling the pizza and setting up a Food Services pizza
table.
The removal of the vending machines is the result of a new,
convoluted interpretation of regulations granting Food Services a
meal monopoly. Not content to be protected from private meal
sales, such as pizza, Food Services now will not allow the sale
of even a drink or snack that does not fill its coffers. Other
area high schools have resorted to bizarre systems such as
programmable vending machines that do not operate during Food
Services hours. The net result is that students who prefer Coke
must purchase their beverage in the morning and have a warm drink
with lunch. However, the effects at Pine View are more damaging,
because the relatively longer operations of Food Services nearly
completely eliminate the possibility of vending machines.
The purpose of the federal regulations is to stifle
competition for school lunches, but it is important to note that
that is because the federal government subsidizes school lunches.
However, Food Services has totally disregarded the spirit of the
law. Rather than try to protect federal tax dollars, Food
Services vending machine policy is merely an attempt to horde
vending machine profits. The new vending machines have the same
harmful effect that necessitated the removal of the old vending
machines; that is, they create competition for federally funded
school lunches. Thus, the only explanation available for the Food
Services take over of the vending machines is a desire for higher
profits. In fact, the switch from Coca-Cola to Fruitopia merely
allowed for the Food Services appropriation of the vending
machines. Food Services uses the high levels of Vitamin C in
Fruitopia to justify distribution of what is essentially sugar
water. Consequently, with extreme logical contortions, one can
consider the vending machines automated food servers that
supplement that which is offered inside the Student Union.
However, the nutritional vacuity of many of the other products
offered in the vending machines further strains the adequacy of
this explanation.
Even without competition from fresh or hot food, Food Services
still feels compelled to prevent competition from preserved foods
in vending machines at schools where its operations are not
profitable enough. It is still unlikely that the aggressive march
of food censorship will be enough to compel enough additional
business to make Food Services profitable at Pine View. To
achieve success, Food Services must improve its service so that
more students will want to buy its products. This goal will not
be achieved by banishing competition, but rather, through more
prompt, courteous, and economical service.
Prompt service is the single most important area in need of improvement for Food Services. Many students reasonably choose not to wait in line for over twenty minutes each day. Adding additional servers would go a long way toward shortening the excessively long waits. A more student-oriented attitude on the part of the manager would help to abate the flow of negative stories from the lunch line. It certainly does not create a favorable view of the School Lunch program when the manager frequently tells subordinates that they are serving too many fries. Finally, refraining from price gouging would bolster sales. Charging $1.50 for a slice of a ten piece pizza is truly outlandish. Considering that a large pizza costs about $10, at least for those of us not receiving bulk discounts, receiving $15 per pizza pie, a 50% mark-up, is undebatably excessive. Perhaps next time a sincere concern for student's health and convenience will be demonstrated.