Every semester when we pay our tuition, a huge chunk of the money we plop down goes to food services.

Approximately 20 percent of what we pay per year goes to Sodexo. This doesn’t seem like much, until you take a closer look at the true nature of the fees. More than half of the charges that we incur as students are based in “service costs,” which supposedly allow us to pay wholesale cost for our meals.

According to BU Dining Services, under the basic meal plan, which many residents pick, we pay just over $2,000 and are given $842 to spend on food. The other $1,200 goes to pay employees, as well as labor and utility supply costs. Paying this service fee is supposed to give us lower food prices, but that doesn’t seem to be the reality of the situation.

The Sodexo Web site states that “Food in our Resident Dining Halls is priced at product cost. For example, a burger in McDonald’s might cost $2.99, whereas a burger in our Resident Dining facilities costs only about $.70.” This information on their site looks promising, but anyone that has actually eaten in one of our dining halls knows that this is not even remotely true.

Paying $7 for a regularly sized meal is not wholesale by any standards. And it’s even more ridiculous when you see someone paying with a debit card what the “market price” of the food would be. I’ve seen people at the dining hall forget their meal cards and pay with cash, only to be charged $20 for a small meal. Most times when I see someone that has forgotten their meal card, there are individuals who offer to pay for the meal, lest they allow someone else to waste a huge amount of real money on mediocre to low-quality food.

It’s unfortunate that we’re being taken advantage of to such an extent. I wish Sodexo would at least have the dignity to remove the information on its Web site stating that we pay wholesale cost. It makes it worse when someone is stealing money from me and waving it in my face.

I understand that Sodexo needs to make a profit just like any other company does, but it should do it in an earnest way, not by lying about food prices. Regularly, I see corporate bigwigs from Sodexo walking around the dining halls in suits and ties, inspecting their company. They remind me of the oil and steel tycoons of the early 20th century, and I can’t help but think that their fatness is a result of the leanness of students’ pockets.

Above the meal plan descriptions on the Sodexo Web site, there is a group of smiling students. This kind of misrepresentation is what defines Sodexo. It’s too bad that the picture was probably staged.