The food service department run the public cafeteria as a service to people visiting the hospital and to help recover the cost of providing meals to patients. Determine the number of cafeteria customers the department will need each day to break-even during a 30 day month. The hospital has 150 beds which are 60% filled each night. Since patients are admitted and released at various times and they are undergoing different treatments, not all patients eat all meals. Fifty percent eat breakfast, 70% eat lunch 90% eat dinner, and 45% have some sort of snack each day.

The food cost for each these meals are $1.25, $1.85, $3.15, and $0.85 respectively. The department estimated it other variable cost to be $1.25 per patient per day. Labor cost is fixed at $71,300 per month along with other monthly fixed costs of $18,000. The department receives $100,000 each month from the hospital to cover its costs.

All cost above this must be recovered from the cafeteria. The guest check average is $8.00 and it has a variable rate of 45%.

Determine the number of cafeteria customers the department will need each day to break-even during a 30 day month