Raisins Cut From Menu As Food Costs Soar

People who grow ecstatic over mounds of fresh, sweet raisins floating in cool, creamy, white yogurt will have to bring their own wrinkled fruits to the dining halls early this year, or live without.

Soaring food costs--a 20 per cent increase in wholesale prices over the past year--and Harvard Food Services' first deficit spending schedule in recent history have led to plans for numerous minor cutbacks. And raisins, currently high-priced and in short supply, have become the first casualty in the University's new battle of the bulging budget.

The increase in this year's board contracts is only $25 per person, to $920, enough to cover just a small part of the expected deficit. To break even the University would have had to raise prices $70 to $80, something it hopes to overcome "through good management," said Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for Administration.

But good management alone cannot offset the entire loss. Summer school deficits caused by Phase III freezes, along with future price rises, could swell that figure to over $300,000--perhaps as high as a half-million dollars. Personnel will not be cut back, Hall promised, so something must give elsewhere.

At 399 Harvard St.--helped by such magazines as Institutions/Volume Feeding, Food Service Marketing, Quick Frozen Foods, School Food-service Journal and Commercial Kitchen and Dining Room--the Food Services administration is attempting to decide just what that something will be.

When confronted with policy questions, Food Services administrators usually speak in pairs. Last year interviews included C. Graham Hurlbut, director of Food Services and Frank J. Weissbecker, associate director. This year, with Hurlbut on leave in Europe, Weissbecker led the interview team with Benjamin H. Walcott, assistant director, as backup.

Weissbecker, lighting his pipe and leaning forward in his chair, vowed that any changes would be "subtle and involve a lot of little things," stressing that "we do not intend to sacrifice quality. We're very quality-minded around here."

Slipping into foodservice-ese, he predicted there would be "certain less expensive dishes--more casserole-type presentations, perhaps, and more sandwich-soup-type presentations." He said, however, that the Food Services Department would serve to "maintain the current variation in the menu cycle" as much as possible.

The subtle changes Food Services currently has in mind include such alterations as more puddings and fewer pies for dessert, and perhaps a less varied selection; less expensive cuts of beef; and, if meat prices in general remain abnormally high or rise further, more poultry dishes.

As for those rare, pleasant dinners of scrumptious sirloin steak, said Walcott, "we obviously cannot pay $3 a pound [for steak] and run it on the menu."

I

In general, Harvard's problems with wholesale prices reflect the general public's difficult times at the retail market. This summer many frustrated consumers took refuge in hamburger-soy protein combinations, for example, which sold at prices about 20 cents a pound lower than 100 per cent ground beef.

This mix brings Harvard Food Services "moderate, but not tremendous" savings, Weissbecker said, and more of it may appear in meals. The department has set a limit of 20 pounds soy to 80 pounds of the real thing in any particular dish, he added.

Hall later elaborated by saying that the soy substitute would be used only in dishes where it could be disguised: "In turkey a la king or chicken a la king, for example, some people even think it makes it taste better," he said. "But too much soy makes a lesser quality product. And we'll never put two soya products on the same menu."

"Of course," Hall continued, "if the other choice is liver, and you don't like liver either, I guess you're out of luck." Soy liver substitutes, he said facetiously, would probably please no one.

II

Food Services administrators say they are counting on "student cooperation"--something they will stress in a letter to be posted in the various house dining halls.

The letter, written in a p.r.-sincere style over Weissbecker's signature, asks students to take only what they can actually eat, stop removing food from dining halls, and "remember that unauthorized guests or meals taken dilute the value you receive from your board fee."

"There's noticeable waste in bread and beverage items," Weissbecker explained, citing the person who takes three or four glasses of orange juice or milk and ends up leaving one behind.

As for students who take food back to their rooms, Weissbecker said: "I can see that someone might like to have, say, an apple for later on in the evening. But we've seen people come in and carry off four or five apples, or a half dozen bananas. Right, Ben?"

Walcott picked up the cue, adding: "Or people who come in with gallon jugs or fill them up with coffee or orange juice."

But changing long-standing habits won't be easy even though, as Hall said, "there isn't a student coming back who doesn't know what has happened to food prices."

If voluntary action and subtle cutbacks fail to stem the expected deficits--something administrators are not anxious to talk about--other steps will be taken. According to Walcott's survey of other schools, several food services--including those at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Rhode Island--plan to end their policies of unlimited second portions, and the Wellesley food manager has asked the school's president for permission to do the same.

"This," Weissbecker said, frowning, "is something we are very reluctant to do. We want to hold off as long as possible." The long-standing policy of limiting second portions of steak, however, might be extended to other, relatively expensive dishes, he admitted.

Food Services' other contingency plans include a possible decline in the frequency with which meat is served at breakfast, and as yet undefined "changes in the brunch presentation," Weissbecker said.

"We think that most students would rather have a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at lunch than have bacon at breakfast," he said, "but this is something we'll have to talk to the students about."

Meanwhile, a rise in the price for individual guest meals (called "transient rates" in the Harvard St. offices) should generate additional funds. Guests (or their hosts) will pay an average increase of 9.25 per cent over last year's prices.

Also, for the first time, the Expository Writing Department will be paying rent for its conclave of offices in the basement of the Freshman Union.

If the deficits equal or surpass everyone's wildest fears, Hall said, there will be two options: to borrow the money from the Corporation and hope for a rebound next year; or to use the Food Services' equipment reserve fund. The second choice would depend on the absence of disasters such as Lowell House's kitchen fire last year or other unexpected breakdowns, he added.

But if the deficits grow that large, a greater board increase is likely to come next term. To cover the deficits the hike would have to be about $1 per $6000 lost, plus an additional $30 or so to cover future inflation.

III

That would lead to a price rise of about $80, something that Hall said he hopes to forestall by "rolling out" the increase--spreading it over several years while hoping for food price reversals. Hall admitted, however, that by that method the University could be rolling out forever.

The financial picture might look grimmer than the University's current response to it, but for the time being no drastic action is being taken. Even such luxuries as Arnold's Cornmeal and Molasses Bread will remain in the Houses, although various items will slip quietly in and out of the menus as their prices and availability vary.

Depending on the 1973 harvests, even raisins may return. But for now, keep a package in your pocket.