Opinion

Restrictive Dining Hall

Students See Less Food Options


Where’s the food?

Obviously there is food on campus because if there wasn’t, we may have a problem. I’m talking about the options. The options are becoming monotonous.

The dining hall, the Student Center, Raising Canes, Shadows, and Java City all have options for us to choose from, but is there really variety? In the dining hall there are omelets, pizza, sandwiches, salads, burgers, chicken, and specialty meals with names I can never recall, and you can find the same type of meals at the Student Center as well. Java City is where the coffee and bagel addicts can be found, and Raising Canes and Shadows are where remixed fried chicken and fat sandwiches can be found.

Let’s set the record straight. The food on campus is okay. It’s not my Nonna’s homemade pasta fagoli, but it is still pretty good. The food on campus gets the job done, and the students on campus have options, but not as many as they would like to have. Of course we have the options within each food stand on campus, but are there really options between having fried chicken from Raising Canes, to the fried chicken in Shadows, to the fried chicken in the Dining Hall and the Student Center? Nope.

I love chicken. I could eat it almost every day, but giving me the option to eat it at four different locations is a little bit monotonous, especially if it is all the same chicken. I can get chicken wraps and chicken sandwiches in all four locations on campus, and I can even order out and get the same food too. When it comes to getting chicken from the dining hall or the Student Center, you still get chicken.

What about bringing It’s Greek to Me to campus? Having gyros and falafels for the first time changed my life. Talk about an outer body experience. Simply giving students an option for something out of the ordinary could liven up their eating lifestyles.

All Greek shenanigans aside, students definitely have some opinions about having more options on campus. Raquel Warehime, sophomore,  believes that they should have more vegetarian options for the students who opt not to eat meat.

“There are many vegetarians out there and they need a proper diet to sustain a healthy life,” Warehime said. “Since many people just have the dining hall, they are not able to maintain that healthy diet.”

What about sushi? I understand that there is a Sawa in Pier Village, but what if no one wants to go off campus for sushi, especially in the winter?  A sushi station would give students another option to choose from other than chicken, meat, more chicken, and more meat, with some pasta on the side.

Do not get me wrong, there are options for students, but the options are for the same types of foods. I am not here to rip apart the eateries on campus, but let’s toss a little bit of sushi into our options. Chicken could use a break from the menu. Maybe throw in some vegetarian options for the students who do not eat meat. We do not need to revamp menus, but we need to keep in mind that there are other options of food out there that could please the students and suit everyone’s needs. Giving students more options would bring a leg up for the university, some sizzle. In the meantime I am going to get some chicken, I mean sushi.