I just got my plate for lunch: rubbery eggplants, chicken Bourguignon (as a French person, I can assure you that it was all except Bourguignon) and fried potatoes. I tried to get a balanced plate, but the fried dishes are much more tempting than the spinach. At Goucher’s dining hall, some students express their worries about the food, in particular regarding the healthy or non-healthy meal options. They have the choice to compose their meal with the different stations: craft (to create their own bowl), fire (pizzas and pasta), kosher, fruit stand, and the pastries’ area. But it can be confusing and complicated to maintain a balanced diet.
Some salad leaves, a boiled egg, a spoonful of carrots, and sometimes a plate of rice with chicken. This is the typical meal of Elisa, an exchange student from Italy. The twenty-three-year-old woman arrived mid-August at Goucher college for a semester and has not been excited about the food here. She did not really pay attention to her meals in her country – she was used to eating more pasta and less greasy food – but since she arrived, she has become worried about it. Indeed, the dining hall is composed of three main stations where everyone can compose their own plate. On paper, it offers “variety and quality” food, but in reality, many students struggle to find diversity, especially when it comes to vegetables. The greenness is often provided by broccolis, zucchini, Brussel sprouts or salad. But when you have only those options two times per day, every week, that does not sound appetising anymore. Especially when, according to Elisa, “cooked vegetables are disgusting.”
Interviewed about the multiple options of fried food rather than vegetables, Thomas Brown, director of Operations at Goucher retorts, “Then, that means people aren’t looking at the kosher station.” According to him, students can eat more vegetables there to diversify their meals. Moreover, Goucher dining hall would provide “…one of the most diverse menus, probably in all of Baltimore.” He echoes the Café Bon Appétit website where we can find all the possibilities that the stations offer. Yet, when you go to the dining hall, it can be complicated to understand all the possibilities you have to eat. First, you have to go through all the stations to see the different options and finally find what you want. Otherwise, you have the possibility to create your own sandwich or bagel but there aren’t any signs explaining how to do it, and not everyone has ever tried it, or knows about this option.
Until last year, students also had the chance to have a custom omelet cooked for them, but the station has since closed. Coincidence or not, the budget granted to Bon Appetit, the company which runs the dining hall, has been reduced from 3 million to 1.5 million per year for the next three years. However, it is not supposed to have an impact on students. Thomas Brown is formal, “There is no budget crisis.” The total budget depends on how many students are enrolled in the meal plan, divided across the weeks of the semester; therefore, it is especially a “…statistical game.” They have to constantly adapt the quantities regarding the expected number of students. For example, around Christmas, they know that they will have a reduced number of people going to the dining hall.
With their given budget, they try to adapt without reducing quality. For that, they can choose to substitute meat like a skirt steak to a deckle, which is cheaper. Another solution to save money is to establish “meatless Monday” sometimes. On top of being economical, it is ecological, as meat has a high-carbon footprint. These little tricks help them with their budget but do not help to solve the issue of having diverse options.
Maybe the finances of the dining hall are running like clockwork, but for some students, it is not the same story. Spending $1,610 per semester for 5 meals per week as a commuter or $3,210 per semester for 10 meals per week (cheaper meal plan) sounds quite expensive. Thus, some students just want to eat a lot to fill the missing meals. Besides, for the students who want to eat healthily but cannot because of their class schedule, the only remaining option is the student market. And there, no trace of any greenness but tenders, fries, quesadillas, burgers and so on.
Furthermore, the lack of diversity may have an impact on athletes. Teun and Gray are both freshman tennis players. As a New Yorker, Gray is used to the food of Goucher even if he recognizes that it is definitely not adapted for athletes: “My typical meals are a sandwich and seltzer for breakfast, chicken tenders for lunch and a pizza with a Dr Pepper for dinner. I will have to eat healthier to improve my athletic performances.” On the other hand, Teun just arrived this year from the Netherlands and struggles to maintain the diet he had at home. “Here, I eat a lot unhealthier, especially because the healthy food is normally not that good. For now, I did not notice a difference in my body because I play sports more than I did at home so it may compensate for the unhealthy food,” he explains. Both think it could be useful for athletes to be followed by a nutritionist to improve their performance.
Finally, maybe it is only a matter of cultural differences. When we give a look around us in the dining hall, many plates are filled with junk food, while some are more balanced. Some even develop a great creativity to “hack” the stations and show their mastering and experience of the dining hall. For instance, some who do not find their happiness in the diversity of pastries have tried to turn waffle batter into pancakes and added snacks on top of it. Even Elisa underlines the importance of eating also unhealthy sometimes, but with moderation: “I always take something that I want to eat, like a brownie, because it is important for my mental health.”
By Loann Letourneux
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