Our Campus’ Eating Culture

Ever since my freshman year, I’ve seen the food options on campus as a huge problem. It’s either extremely greasy, way too overpriced, or comes basically frozen in plastic packaging. To me, it’s hard to understand why there is constantly a huge line in Hillwood for what I see to be over-expensive hospital food.

The food is pretty bad, but once you add in some dietary restrictions, it becomes borderline impossible to find anything that both suits your requirements and is also edible. As a former vegetarian, I’ve eaten way too many bland, pre-packaged salads, and purchased countless $4 yogurts.

Sure, I could have waited on line for a freshly made salad, but that takes about 30 minutes on a slow day and the same issue applies for Subway. I had hoped that it would get easier to eat on campus once I started eating meat again, but my options remained limited. There is still the dreaded refrigerator case, with pre-made wraps and sandwiches, some of which contain my daily requirement of carbohydrates and fats. I could order fatty, fried food or stand on a long line for the duration of common hour to get food that is acceptable at best.

To me, in a place where we spend time bettering ourselves, you would think that we should also be spending time improving our health. How are we supposed to focus when we’re weighed down by heavy meals packed with oils and who even knows what else?

Not only is the food unhealthy, but it also seems as though the university is making an active decision to eliminate anything remotely good for you from Hillwood. The case of Odwalla juices has been replaced by a case of milkshakes, and the pre-packaged healthier items are always way more expensive than the mozzarella sticks or french- fries.

For all of these reasons, it was especially enraging to me when I discovered that 50 dining dollars had been placed into mine and all other commuters’ tuition with no way to avoid the charge. It’s incredible to me that instead of changing their food options to make people want to buy it, the school essentially has to force you to do so by pretending to give away free dining dollars that you absolutely pay for.