Holy Hazelnut!

It seems that the students of Columbia have a sweet tooth for Nutella, costing Columbia University’s dining hall $5,000 in the first few weeks. The unusually high demand, which is a little more than 100 pounds per day, is in part due to the fact students are stealing Nutella. According to the director of dining services, the chocolate-hazelnut topping has had a much greater demand than originally thought. Students are filling to-go cups with Nutella and taking jars of the product from the dining halls. The university’s dining services are spending a large amount of money to compensate for a student taking a full jars of Nutella.

For some perspective on how large the demand for Nutella is at Columbia University, I did some math. The average cost of an eleven pound tub of Nutella is $64.95, while a 13-ounce jar averages around $4.29. This would make $5,000 worth of Nutella about 850 to 950 pounds, which is the average weight of a horse. That is a horse of Nutella! If the students are consuming the alleged 100 pounds of Nutella each day, that would be approximately nine tubs or 123 jars of Nutella in a 24-hour period. Columbia University estimates if this huge demand continues, Nutella consumption could cost up to a quarter of a million dollars each year. $250,000 is equal to about 58,275 jars of Nutella, which is about seven or eight jars per undergraduate student. $250,000 is also the combined cost of the annual tuition and fees for four students at the university. Congratulations to the four students who spent $61,642 to buy Nutella for the students of Colombia University.