Columbia University is denying news reports that students are eating $5,000 worth of Nutella a week.
Student newspaper The Columbia Spectator originally reported that students were consuming a massive 100 pounds of Nutella per day. The numbers were provided to the Spectator by the school’s student council, who said they heard the numbers from director of dining services Vicki Dunn. At the time, the university’s dining services refused to comment on the numbers, according to the Spectator.
However, due to media attention, the university’s administration has now responded in a press release denying the cost. According to the release, titled “NUTELLA-GATE EXPOSED: It’s a Smear! Says Columbia,” the initial start-up cost for the Nutella was actually only $2,500 and afterwards only costs $500 a week.
“It is true that in the first 3-4 days after Nutella was recently added to the dining hall selections, demand was indeed extraordinarily high, with students enjoying a large amount in that initial short period,” the release said. “Columbia Dining Services emphasized the mundane fact that the ongoing weekly cost of Nutella supply is actually less than one-tenth the purported amount originally reported.”
The dining hall serves approximately 3,600 students, seven days a week at three different locations, according to the release.
“Ironically the media attention to Nutella-gate has cut down on the amount people have been taking in recent days,” the release said.
After being offered at the university since early February, the Spectator said the spread has been so popular that students have been stealing it from the cafeterias.
Dunn said the demand for Nutella was greater than originally expected.
“Students have been filling cups of Nutella to-go in Ferris Booth Commons and taking the full jars out of John Jay (one of the campus cafeterias), which means we’re going through product faster than anticipated,” Dunn told the newspaper.
While dining services is not considering getting rid of Nutella, it has noted that it is hesitant to offer other “luxury” items, like lobster tails, due to similarly high anticipated demand.
Dunn does not characterize Nutella as especially expensive, she said.
First-year students at the Ivy League school are paying roughly $2,363 per term on dining plans, according to the university’s website.
Student council representative Peter Bailinson told the Spectator when students are paying such a high rate for even dining services, some students feel entitled to taking things from the dining hall.
