Nutellagate was a controversy at Columbia University surrounding allegations of widespread student theft of dining hall Nutella. Columbia first began serving Nutella in its dining halls in February 2013. Within a month, future Pulitzer Prize winner Cecilia Reyes reported in the Columbia Daily Spectator that high demand for the spread was costing the university $5,000 per week, a figure reportedly calculated by Executive Director of Dining Services Vicki Dunn, as students were consuming up to 100 pounds of Nutella per day.[1] In a school-wide email, Dunn accused students of filling cups with Nutella and stealing full jars from John Jay Dining Hall.[2] It was estimated that at that rate, Nutella consumption would cost the university $250,000 a year, enough to buy seven jars for every undergraduate student.[3] The high volume of Nutella consumption raised questions around food waste, dining hall meal plan costs, exorbitant tuition rates, and consumerism.[1][4][5]
The story quickly garnered national attention, and was reported the next day in The New York Times.[6] The student blog Bwog calculated based on the original figure from the Spectator—$5,000 per week for 100 pounds per day—that unless the Spectator had misreported the numbers, the university was being charged 70% more for its Nutella than prices offered by local distributors.[7] Two days after the Spectator article, the university clarified in a statement titled "NUTELLA-GATE EXPOSED: It's a Smear!" that the weekly cost of Nutella was actually less than one-tenth the reported amount, and that while in the first week the university spent $2,500 on Nutella, the cost had actually fallen to around $450 in following weeks.[8][9]
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