As the food service director, imagine that you receive a phone call from a parent who is complaining ...

After soliciting class ideas, consider polling the students on their view of these additional arguments:

 that the meal plan guarantees that for a given price, the student will be given nutritious wholesome meal options throughout the whole semester, with no parental worries that they will run out of meal money.

 the suggestion that the meal plan offers a better value than what the student could obtain elsewhere

 simply stating the college policy that student who live on campus and participate in campus resident life benefit from joining other resident students in a communal dining situation.

 pointing out that since resident halls do not have cooking facilities, it is impossible for the school to have a reasonable assurance that resident students will have adequate nutrition to take full advantage of educational programs.