Healthy Carolina, working with local produce delivery companies, will soon offer students regular deliveries of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The idea of a subscription delivery service for perishable goods isn’t new; limited-use razors, snack food and pop-culture paraphernalia have all been packed into tiny boxes and sent to those willing to pay a little extra to avoid a Publix or Target run.
In theory, there’s no reason that it shouldn’t work with tomatoes and celery, too. But there are a few wrinkles with this particular venture that might give the average USC foodie pause.
First and most prohibitive is the cost. Of the two produce providers, one, Pinckney’s Produce, offers a flat fee that starts off at $216 for a small box and jumps up to $516 for an extra-large one.
That fee will ensure regular delivery throughout one of two “seasons,” one period from September to November, the other from April to June. The other plan is a bi-monthly, year-round delivery which goes up to almost $38 a month.
Either plan is a substantial wad of cash for any student, let alone one who might want to use this service on top of a meal plan.
Second, packages are delivered to centralized locations on campus and not to student’s residences. Off-campus students will have to make another trip to pick up food he or she could easily get from a nearby grocery store.
Lastly, this program shows that Sodexo and the meal-plan system aren’t filling the veggie-related needs or wants of the student body. If Healthy Carolina believes that students will pay this much for produce deliveries, something is seriously wrong with students' existing access to healthy foods.
While it isn’t overwhelmingly difficult to find fresh produce on campus as it is, we feel like this program should have been included in the meal-plan system, which many students — including every first-year student who lives on campus — already pay exorbitant sums to buy into.
As it stands, we’ll stick with the bag-full of apples we can get with a meal swipe. Or hit up the Farmer's Market on Greene Street and grab some there. Or perhaps plant an orchard ourselves. No? Nobody? OK. More apples for us.