Food is one of the three basic necessities of life, we all need food to stay alive and to function at a high level, or to just function at all. In college, the meal plan doesn’t always work out the best for its students, and that has been evident numerous times here at Pace.

The meal plan here is on a debit card system and it has its pluses and minuses. A lot of schools run on a buffet-style plan where you have three swipes a day, however being thirsty and just wanting a simple drink can cost you a swipe which takes away an entire meal for you.

Pace’s debit card system prevents that from happening, and instead requires that you pay for everything you bring to the register. The more money you want for your meal plan, the more your tuition will be. Most students cannot afford a higher meal plan so they stick to the bronze plan.

At $1,750, the bronze plan is higher than the green and blue meal plans, which don’t exceed triple digits, and is lower than platinum, gold, and silver. There have been many occasions where students run out of money in the fall and spring semesters, and are left to come up with other ways to pay for meals so they can keep their stomachs filled. What is mind-blowing is that a lot of students don’t know that once junior year hits, the meal plan declines in money.

That means if you thought the bronze meal plan was a struggle before, you’ll be eating a lot more ramen and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if you don’t know how to cook, or haven’t upgraded to a higher meal plan. It puts students in an unfortunate situation because they may not have the money to upgrade to a higher meal plan, nor have the money to do some grocery shopping for meals they could prepare on their own.

At this point, students are forced to choose the lesser of two evils knowing that no matter which one they choose, their pockets will be affected tremendously. The point is, why put students in that predicament when you could just continue to supply them with the bronze meal plan?

It would not only help students maintain financial stability, but it could ease their conscience as well, because they know that they can find some way to budget their meal plan to make it last the semester, rather than it being one more thing that they have to worry about.

College is stressful enough and any time that little things can be fixed to make it less stressful then it already is, that’s exactly what should be done.