We have a lot of diverse people, but not a lot of diverse food choices.
As college students, we may or may not have a lot of free time on our hands. Chances are the majority of us don’t. Between school, work (for those of us that have a job during the semester), socializing, and sleep we don’t have much time to do spare things like pack a lunch in our free time. So for the days when we have long hours at school or just want to eat something between classes we don’t have a lot of options between the Bookstore and Bleeker St. Cafe unless you want to drive off campus to a restaurant or the store. Through my own experience and by conversing with others, I’ve come to realize we don’t have very good options for food on campus.
Even when going off campus for food, a lot of the places that are advertised as college-friendly (such as Brown Dog Cafe) are very overpriced. If students want a cheaper option, we have to go to fast food restaurants such as Wendy’s or McDonald’s, which aren’t a very healthy option either. So when we can’t pack a lunch, going off campus isn’t a great option for food too.
One vegan student has difficulties finding something she can eat on campus when she doesn’t have time to pack food the night before. Other students complained about the lack of hot food and lack of choices in the Cafe and Bookstore. The Bookstore has a lot of options if you’re really just looking for a snack, but their “meal options” like sandwiches and frozen foods are limited, especially for vegan and vegetarian individuals on campus.
Some students recommended that we have more selections of fresh fruit, some complained that the fruit in the Cafe looks like it’s been left out for longer than it needs and they would like a larger selection than just apples and bananas. Other recommendations were to provide healthier foods and hotter food options. There was also a complaint that a lot of the food provided in the Cafe just isn’t healthy and that the those in charge of serving can be discriminatory and are only nice to selective people.
A complaint of the bookstore was that all of the refrigerated choices are high fat and high calorie and that all of the frozen options that don’t provide the option to buy plates or anything for the food. Some recommendations were better chip choices because there will several selections of chips that are never bought and they could be replaced by options that students would enjoy. It was also suggested that more fruits and vegetables be provided in the bookstore. It was pointed out that the bookstore provides a lot of soda options–granted a lot of people prefer soda–but some students would like more choices of water and complained that the water choices that are available aren’t good water.
