The Cost of Lunch

At Whitney M. Young Magnet High School we are lucky to have an off campus lunch. Very few schools have it. At Whitney we have a handful of choices to choose from. We have Subway, Dunkin, Billy Goats, Target, and Harold’s. Just to name some of the few popular spots that they go to. Many people do order out and have it delivered to school. They order off from Uber Eats, GrubHub, and restaurants with their own delivery service. We are very lucky to be able to order food and have it delivered. Before it closed down, Ella’s, was a very popular restaurant that basically catered to Whitney Young and the Police Academy. They had cheese fries, chicken nugget meals, mozzarella sticks, and gueros. They had a whole menu made for teens and adults to munch on during lunch. Their food was always hot and fresh, and they always had a line going out the door during 12:00-2:00. So I was wondering how much does an average Whitney Young students spend on food on a monthly basis. 

I started by asking a group of friends that I know go out to dunkin every day. Josh Healing’21 is one student that joins them. He said, “ I always get a medium iced coffee with cream and sugar with a chocolate long john. The total comes out to be just under five dollars after tax. I have that almost everyday.” So by doing some simple math Josh is spending on average of 20 dollars a week on Dunkin. And since there is around 40 weeks in a school year not including breaks, Josh spends around 800 dollars on dunkin each school year. That is just for his lunch every weekday. 

I counted on and asked someone who orders food on Fridays. Grant Harrison’21 orders something every friday. It can be from Uber Eats from McDonald’s, or Jimmy John’s sandwiches, anything that he can not walk in a class period. He told me that, “ since I always order for my brother and I we average maybe 30 dollars a day on food. We usually do that because we have practices and we get home late”. He then went on to tell me that, “ we do have dunkin pretty often but that is just to get a doughnut.” so doing the same math as we did to Josh. So on average per school year Grant spends around 1200 dollars on food. 

In contrast a Yuan Ochoa a senior who barely goes out because he either has to do homework or doesn’t have any cash on him spends around 20 dollars a month of food during lunch at school. He said, “ I don’t like going out because I always have Econ homework. I have a card with money on it. I just want to save it for emergencies. I know people who spend a lot on food and I just don’t get hungry during the day.” Yuan is not the only student that lives by this. Many freshmen who don’t want to go out or Academic kids can’t go out. Many students realize the cost it is to eat out everyday.