Everyday I walk into food service. Before making my way to the back of the queue, I always head to the cash register to glance over the various menu offerings and their respective prices. Cookie: 75 cents. Milk: 50 cents. These prices seem fairly reasonable. Then I catch some of the other items for sale. Cinnamon roll: $4.00. Hot dog: $5.00. Holly’s Mandarin cup of chow mein smaller than the size of my fist: $7.50. Woah! What happened here? Even salads are over six bucks.

Now instead of buying a healthy lunch at the Piper Café, I have to hold off until after the final school bell rings to eat leftovers at home, dig into the lunch money that I had reserved for later in the week, or consume a meal consisting of potato chips, cookies, and Gatorade.

After speaking with my friends and other peers, I got a general sense that there were many other students who shared a similar frustration regarding the pricing, or overpricing that is, of food service items. It was time to research.

At the local Safeway in Oakland, one can buy a three pack of Hebrew National All-Beef Franks, the same dogs offered on Monday’s at the Piper Café, and a 12 pack of buns for a grand total of $13.93. As there are seven links per pack, each dog and bun combo would be worth approximately 84 cents. How can a 500 percent price increase be justified?

Vice Principal Anne Dolid and Volunteer Piper Café Treasurer Cindy Hubert both said that food service breaks even for the most part, meaning their income and expenses are essentially the same.

The Piper Café is completely funded through the PHS Parents Club. After receiving a designated amount earmarked for PHS food service from Parents Club, the school district allocated those funds accordingly. All sources of income brought in by the Café eventually go back to the Parents Club, making food service 100% monetarily self-sustainable, not counting property or utility costs which are covered separately.

To understand the price points set at food service, a look at the breakdown of profits and losses helps bring clarity to the situation.

Out of the $138,727 expensed by food between July 1, 2012 and Feb 9, 2013, just over $85,000 was spent on food products, with the remaining $53,500 going to things like equipment, repairs, supplies, banking, and the single employee on payroll. Even with the extra labor of student and parent volunteers, there are many hidden, yet significant costs such as transportation, the electronic cashier system, and compostable containers and utensils.

“M’Lisa Kelley, the executive chef of the Piper Café, regularly gets her at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and stays until 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon making meals and ensuring that food service runs smoothly,” Dolid said.

Hubert also said, “[Kelley] has done an excellent job of [making sure the budget it balanced] so far this year.”

So no, there is actually no secret extortion deal going on within food service, just various reasonable expenditures that need to be accounted for.

I will say that food service brunch and lunch options this year have been creative and very tasty, yet I still think there could be some improvements made to the set price points of various items.

Currently, the lowest cost items, not counting the free fruit, are cookies and chips. In efforts of promoting healthy eating habits and to effectively fuel students for the rigorous classes of PHS, the cheaper, unhealthier items’ prices should be slightly raised, while respectively lowering the prices of sandwiches, salads, and other hearty entrees.

The first thing many students notice as they walk into food service is a large poster on the opposite wall advocating healthy meals for students. We need to urge food service to reconsider their prices and thereby give incentive to students to go for the healthier options, as promoted.

Contact Peter Hession at phession@tphnews.com