College-grade MREs

[DonJa]

When I went to college, we were required to live in the dorm and purchase a meal plan. Dining hall food wasn't great for what the plan cost, but it was filling and there was lots of it.

They don't do that any more?

Costs extra money to do that. It's a handy way for schools to bilk a few more dollars out of students by running a crappy hotel. The majority of students eat as cheaply as possible, consume garbage like ramen noodles, Val-U chips and employ tricks like calling the pizza place up at closing time to beg for whatever's left for 1/2 price.

I like the ration idea. Pitch it to parents though. If you suggest a college kid should spend $16 on a ration or two, he's going to instead spend it on a 30-pack of Natty Light or a bottle of Tequila Zapata.

[ViperGTS]

Wow, thats expensive as heck...i had an unlimited meal plan built into the tuition cost, but survived on chex-mix for 4 years...you must be at a private college, i went to a state u

[MRECivvy]

Possible inclusions:

Instant coffee
Isotonic beverage powder
Beef Jerky
Belvita biscuits (for breakfast menus)
Caffeinated chocolate
Protein bars (like First Strike bars)
Crackers and cheese spread

Definitely something with flavor. I used to eat ramen every day and I ended up getting sick of the stuff.

[Richard w.]

If someone were to market something like this, I imagine there would be parents buying it to send to the "kids". Students won't buy them, IMO. Anyone could buy a cart full of those exact items at the Costco to stock in their room, but they usually don't.

They are a lazy bunch, college students. Not picking on today's youth. It's been like that for a long time. Myself included.

[WorkmanMRE]

What's your favorite type of MRE coffee?
[/quote]

Nescafe is ok, but the Starbucks instant coffees are amazing! I highly recomend them. you can get them for about 50-70 cents each.(bulk at costco 40cents each)

If your going on a budget try the cheapest instant you can find and add powdered creamer and hot chocolate mix to it!

I might also suggest buying bulk dehydrated mixes, like you see in the grocery store bulk section. The soup and chilli mixes are really filling! Buy some bulk rice to add filler to the mixes! You can make nutritious meals for under a buck!

[carlosflar]

If you do t have access to a kitchen, I'd consider getting an electric stove and kettle, you can get some at ikea for little and they have the sice of a scale...
With that, canned chickpeas, mashed potato powder, some veggies and some meat you can easily cook for yourself if you are smart... And would be way cheaper and healthier

[Spike1678]

I would call them EERs Educational Environment Ration

[mikeoverhere]

Given that a lot of us waited till Top Ramen was on sale 10 for $1, or we wanted and ate fast food - they would have to be really, really cheap. Another staple was Mac and Cheese. If we had extra money we would live it up and buy some hot dogs and throw them in the ramen or mac and cheese. Even the fast food was the cheapest variety like pizza deals or McDonalds. I preferred eating this way as our food plan pass was expensive, and I didn't like being locked into eating at specific times - I wanted to eat whenever I wanted to or when it was convenient for me.

That said I wish they sold commercial meal packs in stores. In Japan, you can buy all manner of Bento Boxes all over the place, and everything and anything out of a vending machine - very handy. I would like complete meals in the grocery stores for those who don't want to shop, prepare food, or waste money buying more than what was wanted. Packs good to take camping, to throw in a drawer until you got around to eating it, as back up meals, etc. I love the snack packs offered on airplanes so much I would buy them and eat them in my hotel on my trips - another place where one might not have access to cooking equipment though almost always a coffee pot for hot water.

Being commercial and not designed for long term storage or extreme temperature conditions, they could be comprised of simple off the shelf items which taste better anyways. I have seen such packs on eBay being sold, essentially home made MRE's. Some are nothing but shelf items thrown into a plastic ziplock back and sold as camping MRE's. Some had things like crayons, toys, and kid sized foods and snacks in them for children meals.

Our local grocery stores also make lunch meals comprised of a fresh sandwich, chips, and a drink (sometimes a dessert snack as well) made daily. Very handy for someone who wants a meal, but doesn't want to have to buy large quantities of everything to get it. America's version of a Bento box. Tourists often buy them as well.

Me - I like a variety of things to eat, in small portions for every meal. It's the Japanese in me. I get bored eating large quantities of the same things. This is why I love MRE's so much. I don't buy them to collect, I buy them to eat.

[BlackDogBob]

The biggest issue would be that if it looked like a military ration, they would turn their noses up at it. It would have to be full on commercial. Marketed thru a grocery chain, the production cost per meal would have to be below $3 to hit a retail point of $7 or less. Not something that could happen.

On a side note, I'm a Folgers kind of guy.