Inflation hit Urban’s cafeteria as entree prices increased from $8.00 to $8.50 since last school year. Although Urban’s food service, Flik, made this change, has the Urban community even noticed? 

“Urban and Flik work together to set prices by evaluating the costs for food, labor and paper serving products,” said Diane Walters, chief financial officer at Urban. Urban also makes an effort to create prices that are proportional to or lower than those of nearby businesses. 

“[Despite increases], no matter what we charge, we’re not charging enough on our daily sales,” said David Labao, widely known as Chef David to the Urban community. The difference between the production costs and the price students pay is being subsidized by Urban. “Which is good for the students. Otherwise, we would be charging even more,” said Chef David. 

Amid supply chain issues caused by geopolitical uncertainty, restricted supply has driven food and consumer goods prices up. “Many [economists] think the war between Russia and Ukraine, [having] reduced oil supplies and grain exportation, also contributed [to inflation],” said Adrianne Francisco, economics teacher. These global issues hit home at Urban as well. 

“Since the supply chain is so broken, that’s where we are feeling the cost. These small companies, whether it be a chicken producer, a potato chip producer or a carrot farmer, they just have less workers,” said Chef David. Over the last year, the cost of food and beverages rose by 10.4% throughout the Bay Area. This is just .1% below the previous largest increase in February of 1981, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Since Chef David began working at Urban in 2016, entree prices have increased by over 21%. “Everybody is feeling the back end,” said Chef David, referring to the chain reaction caused by increasing ingredient costs. Aside from raising prices, supply chain backups limit access to key products and ingredients, placing an additional strain on Flik staff. “We find it really hard to make menus [when] one day, you have the iced tea, and one day you don’t,” Chef David said. Students are generally unaware of how economic pressures affect Flik’s internal operations, including this year’s price increase.

“I definitely noticed the prices are high, [but] I didn’t realize they increased,” said Anna Priya Gupte ‘23, the Financial Aid and Socio-Economic Status affinity group (FASES) co-leader. “I try not to think about it, but I really do need to think about it.” Gupte finds that tracking Flik purchases can be challenging. “Because I eat here every day, it auto-fills, and so genuinely, I have no concept about how much I’m spending,” Gupte said.

Although Urban displays Flik prices at the cafe, increases aren’t announced, leaving many students unaware that anything has changed. “I just don’t really think about it,” said Arlo Sears-Bicknell ‘24. “I’ve never looked.”  

Even before prices grew, some students questioned whether purchasing from outside sources would be more financially favorable. “I know they do need to make money. We’re paying for an outside service [which] does make sense,” said Makena Fong ‘23, FASES’ other co-leader. “But, at the same time, is it better for me to just go to Costco and buy a whole case of Naked Juice instead of buying one for $4.50 here?” 

Regardless of Urban and Flik’s control over school lunch prices, some students find that food price inflation adds an extra burden to their lunchtime planning. “It just kind of messes up my day,” said Gupte. “[Sometimes] I have to go to lunch and be hungry afterwards because I had to think about my financial choices.”