Is Food Too Expensive for Students - Essay Example

Task Food too Expensive for Introduction Food tops the indispensable needs for any healthy human being for an ordinaryand comfortable life. For this same reason, students require a lot of energy in undertaking the numerous activities such as the mind-challenging assignments and other accomplishments. Life has become too expensive for us to contain with emerging global issues such as the recession period in the US. The food prices have significantly risen, but this should not be felt by a student who is dependent on the parent. Food being too expensive, the following statements are given in support and solutions. Body For most students, having high food expenditure is usually a much bigger problem as they always take care of other minor expenses acquired in normal life from the little money obtained from parents. Students do not usually work or rather cannot find the much-needed free time to assume part time jobs (U.S. Department of Labor). They are habitually immersed in academic work or rather they are not willing to do any other extra activities. However, they are left with many expenses and little money to take care of the expenses. The canteens and school cafeterias usually overcharge for their services due to a misguiding notion that students have little expenses and that they have a lot to spend. In most schools around the world, a particular commodity has a higher price in a school canteen than in a normal shop outside a learning institution. Cafeterias and canteens are not in most cases considered part of the school system, but as a way of making maximum profits by exploiting students. However, students may find the food prices at school cafeterias expensive due to the poor family status where the parent to these students are jobless or the available work pay peanuts. In some cases, parents may have an ailment such as cancer and the student may at times be required to take care of the entire family expenses. For single parents who can barely meet their daily expenses, they are over bundled with the task of taking their children through school. These students are usually in hardship taking care of the food expenses and even taking part time jobs is not enough to end entirely the student’s hardships. The students receive a little amount of money especially if the parents are not well of, or if they feel that they are spending too much on their child’s education. The fees may at times be too much as compared to the parents’ income. Since students to commute to school, they usually require money to take care of transport means. With the higher food prices, it is a key problem especially for the poor planners and spendthrifts who find themselves with so many expenses and little to spend. Some students may forego meals to reduce the daily expenses, which food is the main contributor. This has led to poor nutrition of students, which further reduces their performance, as food is very important for the proper working of the brain. The body requires energy that is essential for proper functioning of the body metabolic processes that greatly influence the proper execution of activities or tasks. The cheap foods in the school environments are usually the junk foods. They are the leading cause of such a crisis as obesity. They may also lead to other disease such as high blood pressure. Most students opt to purchase what is less expensive as the food choice is greatly influenced by the economic factor that is the cost of food. This has led to poor nutrition to most students leading to ailments associated to the poor diet due to the reduced immunity associated with the lack of certain essential nutrients. The high cost the food has been greatly associated with the high cost of living, the rising trend of the fuel prices, poor state of food security and other international issues. However, the school administration working together with the government should come up with strategies to reduce the cost of food to the students to reduce the hardship to the students and to ensure a better performance in academics. The government should provide subsidies to schools for the commodities delivered therefore reducing the cost of food to students. In doing this, the school does not incur extra cost in purchasing goods and this will not be added upon to the student’s expenditure. The learning institutions have to ensure that students are not overcharged for the services offered in the school cafeterias and canteens. This can be achieved by the regular monitoring of the food prices inside the learning institutions. The school structures have to ensure that there is no exploitation of students by the unscrupulous businesspersons running the school cafeterias. The school programs can also to come up with alternative dietary plans for students and operate on tight budgets to ensure better nutrition leading to better health for the students. The alternative sources have to be cheaper but also of higher nutritive values. In certain learning institution, students are provided with some form of kitchen facility to allow them to cook their own food. Providing more of these facilities might considerably reduce food expenses. The government should offer financial aid to the schools which will further supplement the overall school budgetary allocations. In doing this, food prices will be reduced as well as the students expenditure further reducing the hardships to both the students and parents. The government should offer support to the poor families over bundled with the numerous expenses and give support to single parents in the provision of educational opportunities by providing scholarships and other financial aids. The government should also take the initiative to prevent the problem of food insecurity and address the global issues such as inflation, which is a main cause of high food prices in the world today. The shifting trends of the world economics should also be addressed to ensure fewer cases of unstable currencies. The USDA reimbursement has been on the rising trend with the inflation. These USDA reimbursement rates, which provide subsidies to the school feeding program, should be kept constant to reduce the expenses to the students. This can be made possible through government interventions. However, it can only apply to learning institutions under the stated program. The nutritional rules that had been instituted before should also be revised to a more achievable minimum as the high food prices bite to consumers. Conclusion Despite of the changing food prices, concerned parties have to cooperate to come up with appropriate mechanisms to reduce the prices of food for students who have no a source of income but required to take care of numerous expenses. It is high time that learning institutions realize the numerous challenges that the students undergo in their academic life. The implementation of the above recommendations will be of greater significance towards making a student’s life better. Works Cited Consumer Price Index, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.-Wis., Msa –First Half 2011: food. Bureau of Labor Statistics: U.S. Department of Labor. Available at: Study in Sweden: Food, transport and leisure. Sweden.SE. Available at: Read More