Buying Food from the GSC Café v. Buying Food off Campus

The Gainesville State Col­lege cafe­te­ria has a new look: an all new food court-like style in the cafeteria.

Unlike last year where food choices were lim­ited, the new café offers more to choose from: tacos, sub sand­wiches, pizza, hot­dogs, cheese ham­burg­ers, fries, salad and more. Also new this year, is the increase in prices.

With prices rang­ing from $1.99 for a slice of pizza, to $5.00 for a sand­wich, it leaves one won­der­ing: Is it worth it to spend money at the school café or go off cam­pus for lunch?

“I would rather spend money off cam­pus, than to spend money at the school cafe­te­ria,” Justin Castle­berry said ear­lier this week. “I could buy some­thing off the Dol­lar Menu and spend less than I would at school.”

Unlike McDon­alds where you can cre­ate a combo meal off of the Dol­lar Menu, I found it isn’t so easy so at GSC.

Why? Because there is no dol­lar menu. Also, not every­thing off the menu comes with a side, such as fries or chips and a drink, forc­ing stu­dents to pay extra just for a bite to eat at school.

If I wanted to buy a cheese­burger, fries and a soda, it may cost more than at a fast food restau­rant, since prices may not include side items, like french fries.

“It’s con­ve­nient to buy food from the cafe­te­ria,” said Mark Green. “If you don’t have time to go across the street to get some­thing, it saves you time.”

Sav­ing time and not giv­ing up that great park­ing space makes the prices and even the food at the GSC café attrac­tive to students.

How­ever, if the given the choice to choose between pay­ing $7 for a meal, or get­ting a Meal Deal from Taco Bell for two dol­lars and los­ing my park­ing space, I would def­i­nitely choose Taco Bell.