By Katie Agnew

This letter is being written in response to “Where are all the dishes?” in last weeks edition. While I may not condone thievery, I believe that Bon Appetite comes out ahead with regards to the student body. This semester, students were required to pay $1982 for the meal plan at Café Mac. Assuming the 19 meals a week plan and the $1200 flex plan are of the same value, I will use the $1200 flex points meal plan for this comparison because flex points are given in replacement of meals. If we are on the 14 meals a week plan, we should get 5/19th of the meal plan in flex dollars. This would amount to $315; we only get $125, for a difference of $190. If we are on the 10 meals a week plan, we should get 9/19th of the meal plan in flex dollars. This would amount to $570; we only get $200, for a difference of $370. Café Mac is complaining of nearly $14,000 extra dollars needing to be spent on replacement dishes. I am complaining about not getting all of the flex points that I am paying for. Using these numbers, we can see that only approximately 75 students would need to be on the 14 meals a week plan to compensate Cafe Mac for the “$14,000” spent on replacing stolen and/or broken dishes/silverware/glasses/cups, and only 36 students would need to be on the 10 meals a week plan. I am going to take a shot in the dark and assume that more students than this have changed their meal plans from 19 a week. This begs the question: how much does Café Mac profit from these alternative meal plans? I am not claiming here that two wrongs make a right. However, until meal plan prices get lowered or more flex points are given, Macalester students will continue to borrow kitchen supplies.
Katie Agnew ’11 can be reached at [email protected]