Meal Plan Research Paper

On a Friday night after a long, stressful week most people want nothing more than to just relax and enjoy themselves. Some people go about this in the form of going out to eat with friends and ordering delicious food that makes them forget about all the stress from the previous week. Good food provides a wonderful escape to a world where the only concern is what to get for dessert. Going out to eat provides an easy way to get food so as to avoid the stress and time dedicated to making a meal yourself. Students who live on-campus are required to purchase a meal plan which grants them access to the Dining Commons. While the meal-plans provide students with an easy and quick way to get food it is not always of the best quality. There are several benefits associated with meal plans, however these benefits are drastically outweighed by the drawbacks. Such drawbacks include overpaying …show more content…
Yet others insist that having a meal plan is a good thing. They argue that having a meal plan ensures that you will always have easy and quick access to the food in the dining commons. While it certainly would be convenient to have access to already prepared food in the dining commons, there is a downside. First, you only have access to the food while the dining commons is open. Second, just because the food is always ready to go at a moment's notice does not mean that it is the best food available. Oftentimes because the food is so readily available it can become cold if it has been sitting in place for an extended period of time. Another common argument that is made is that with a meal plan you do not have to worry about going to a grocery store and purchasing groceries every week. However, some people want to eat food that the dining commons does not serve and in that situation, they end up going to a grocery store anyway. While it may appear that there are some benefits to having a meal plan, there are