Given the choice, many college students would probably choose grease over greens. Yet CSU-Monterey Bay sophomore Josh Varon seems to have found the right combination of vegetables and fried food. Varon, who has dark hair and an unshaven face, takes a bite out of his Gardenburger. He then dips his French fries in ketchup.

As a vegetarian, Varon’s options at the Otter Express eatery range from a grilled cheese sandwich to an organic packaged salad. But it’s the end of the school year, and students like Varon are either sick of campus food or out of money on their meal card—or both. “I think kids are going to complain about the food anyways, if they are forced to eat it,” Varon says.

Come fall semester students may have a new food service provider to complain about. Three companies—Sodexho USA, Aramark and Chartwells—are competing for the dining contract on campus, which, based on last year’s sales, is worth at least $3 million. Sodexho, the incumbent, has been a bellwether for sustainability on campus, from fair trade coffee to biodegradable utensils. When it launched in 2004, the Sodexho partnership with Earthbound Farm to provide organic produce at CSUMB served as a national model. However, students complain about Sodexho’s prices and lack of variety.

Currently, a committee of students and faculty are studying the three proposals, and will make a recommendation by the end of the month. But it’s difficult for anyone outside the committee to compare the contractors. The Foundation of CSUMB, a nonprofit tasked with raising money for the university that is responsible for overseeing on-campus housing and dining services, among other things, won’t release any details about the proposals. Plus, committee members have signed confidentiality statements agreeing not to talk about the specifics of the plans.

Robert Graham, Associated Students president and a committee member, says all three contractors have proposed switching to a meal quota system in place of the current check card approach. Students living in the old Army barracks now pay $1,250, while students in the new North Quad Suites pay $1,100 each semester for a meal plan. All 1,200 students who live on campus—excluding those who live in the North Quad and East Campus apartments—must buy a food card.

Graham isn’t a fan of the all-you-can-eat, buffet-style meals proposed by one company. “This would allow students to eat their sorrows away,” Graham says. “Instead of the freshman 15, freshman 50.”

Moreover, one company wants to contract out food service at the Black Box Cabaret, the only all student-run venue on campus. Currently, the BBC is the only place to get non-Sodexho grub. But the Foundation is tired of covering the facility’s losses. The BBC lost about $91,000 this fiscal year and is projected to go in the red more than $113,000 next year. The Foundation is also expected to subsidize dining services to the tune of a half a million dollars. This is not surprising, considering that the Foundation is a nonprofit designed to provide these services. But next year, it expects a $763,000 deficit.

Maria A.Y. Garcia, director of operations at the Foundation, says expenses such as maintenance and utilities have gone up. Although the Foundation expects to go in the red, Garcia says the committee is not looking for a food service contractor to make money for the Foundation. “We want to make sure that whatever food program is being provided is going to meet the needs of the campus community,” she says.

Garcia, who also chairs the committee, says she wants a provider to de liver high-quality, reasonably-priced food that is also sustainable. With its environmental track record, Sodexho likely has the advantage.