I understand that school cafeteria food is rarely deserving of five stars no matter where you are. But the service that our school partners with is hardly deserving of even three stars. On the Aladdin Food Management website, their logo is surrounded by the words “trust, service, creativity, making a difference,” and many more such phrases. And unfortunately, this service is not living up to their mission statement.

The management does need to make a profit off of their sales, but do they really need to rip the students off? In our cafeteria, a chocolate bar costs $2.25. At a regular supermarket, these sell for $0.90. Each branch of Aladdin Service is told to shoot for a profit three times higher than what the product is actually worth. To put it simply, corporate Aladdin is scamming us. This unfortunately does not seem to resonate with the so-called “trust” on their logo.

However, we have made improvements in the sense of “service.” The current employees are very friendly, go out of their way to help, and work hard at their jobs.

On to the topic of “creativity.” Once again, Aladdin does not seem to follow through with this, as the options are limited and hardly ever change. Aladdin provides posters of luxurious meals with fresh produce and proteins, yet everyday in the hot line there is simply another variation of fried chicken and potatoes.

On the other side there is a salad bar, sandwich bar, and a fridge with limited healthy options. Trying to eat healthy in this cafeteria and having variation in your meals is nearly impossible. The salad bar is pretty good; it is possible to make a somewhat creative salad each day. Unfortunately, the salad bar is the only healthy option other than a cup of sliced fruit from the fridge and some yogurt occasionally. One of the videos shown in health class about the negative American diet actually features Aladdin in a small part and emphasizes how unhealthy cafeteria food really is. This is most likely because we have more candy and chip options than we have vegetable options. Brebeuf is simply not practicing what they preach by providing Aladdin Food Service.

Lastly, Aladdin claims to be “making a difference.” The only difference they are making is in our bank accounts. For $8.25, students can buy a small salad, a flavored water, and a chocolate bar, and for $7 they can get ONE cheeseburger. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think these average meals are worth quite that much. Every day at lunch, students are told they have gone into negative balance on their accounts, after just a week or so having passed since the last refill by their parents. Part of this blame could be placed on the students for going on a daily spending spree, but if $50 can’t get a student through a 5-day week, we should reevaluate our mediocre food choice of Aladdin Food Management Service.