There are many factors that limit our food choices: what we eat does not always reflect what we wish we could eat. Every person is limited in what they eat, most often because of the cost of living. As college students in Seattle we are forced to pay rent in a city with skyrocketing rates, we are forced to pay for books we may never even open, and if we live on campus are forced to pay for an expensive dining plan, the cheapest of which gives you approximately $10 a day which is not nearly enough because campus food is incredibly expensive. We are put in this position because we are students, but we don’t always realize that many people are put in this position anyways, and do not have the privilege of receiving an education.
To catalyze some change, institutions need to be transformed. Since the job market is so competitive, receiving a bachelor’s degree needs to be more affordable. There are people who do not have the good fortune of receiving scholarships or who may not have the capability to apply for them. Many people cannot qualify for loans, namely non-citizens. Whether we are scraping by paycheck to paycheck or leaning on our parents, the system is sucking us dry in one way or another.
Circling back to food, what we eat is largely constrained by our income. As students, paying for education is on the forefront of our minds, not paying for good, “real” food to be on our plates. We are faced with the accessibility of cheap and processed foods every day, that present a fast and easy option that we are inclined towards simply because of its accessibility. If education is made cheaper, we as students and consumers could use a larger sum of our income towards putting real and better foods on our plates.