Every year, the Student Services Fees Committee spends months deciding how to distribute millions of dollars to student groups. A portion of that funding goes to the food for each group, and that number is on the rise.

Student fees pay for the food at events like the Black Student Union’s Ebony Ball, the Minnesota Student Association’s Support the U Day and Colleges Against Cancer’s Relay for Life, even if students aren’t involved in those events.

That’s why this year’s committee targeted food expenses in requests, calling them an unjustifiable use of students’ money in some instances.

Food falls into two categories.

According to Kyle Kroll, this year’s SSFC Student Group Committee chair, “operational food” is for recurring events like meetings, while “programming food” is for special events.

So a portion of every student’s money is going to the food at student group meetings.

Kroll said he thinks food budgets have increased because more groups have discovered they can request the funding from student fees.

“You can never go wrong asking for the money because the worst is you’ll be denied,” he said.