By RANDY OWENS
Columnist
When you pay for a service, you expect the service to be there. That’s why I’m surprised, dismayed and a little unhappy when I’m greeted with my service in the morning when I go to eat breakfast at the cafeteria here.
I’m sorry, but we have no eggs, waffle-mix, peanut butter or even milk for your cereal.
This is unacceptable because even though you have already paid for these items with your student meal plan, there are none of these items on the counter today.
Why, you might ask?
“Well, it’s not our fault, because the corporate office has said since eggs have gone up a few cents, we can’t afford to give you any. Also for some reason we didn’t order enough of the other things and there are no stores or places to get these other items in the Alva area. But don’t worry, we have some hard day-old biscuits and some watery gravy for you to have every morning, so grab a plate of that and have a healthy day!”
In the beginning of the semester you had to ask nicely for some eggs, and they might fix you some.
Now it’s a strictly no eggs at all on Tuesday and Thursday policy in the school cafeteria. (The only days I eat breakfast in there).
“Oh, but you can go to the student center and get a breakfast burrito or a English muffin sandwich and pay the same one meal credit, that is approximately $7.50 for one of those choices. Oh, and to be fair, you do get one hash brown and a small drink. Where as you can go across the street to Mc Donald’s and get 4 breakfast burritos for $4.00, but we are not trying to rip you off or give you a bad deal. We just can’t afford to feed you, even though we already have your money.”
Okay, here is the thing I don’t understand: yes there is a problem with the avian flu in some parts of the country, (mostly out east), but this is waning (it’s not been in the news since July) so eggs are still widely available. I recently went to my local store in Tonkawa and the price has not jumped to record highs. The shelves were still full. I don’t see how this is affecting milk and the other things like peanut butter, and waffle mix that are not available, but I’m not in charge. I’m just a dissatisfied customer that has to pay the fee for a ten meal package, just to be able to live in the dorm, and not have any of those choices for breakfast.
I won’t even go into why we get baked potatoes at dinner and no sour cream to have with them. That’s for another time.