It happens to us all: we forget to bring lunch. Sometimes we just don’t have time to make anything. Sometimes we actually make the lunch, but we leave it on the counter as we rush out the door. Sometimes we are out of bread, or peanut butter, or pickles, or whatever it is we like to include in sandwiches. We really don’t want to raid the vending machines for candy bars and soft drinks, but we are hungry.
We have already discussed how raiding the community refrigerator and stealing our colleagues’ food is not a collegial thing to do. So what’s left? What does a busy higher-ed person do for food? The campus cafeteria!
To hear college students talk about student union food, you’d think they are forced to eat gruel and stale bread everyday. (Since many students eat every meal in the campus cafeteria, and those unique perceptions might seem justified.) But you don’t eat every meal in the cafeteria. You know there are good foods to find there. In fact, many campus food service units strive very hard to provide a variety of healthy, tasty, good choices.
But how do we define “good”? Cheese burgers, fries, and pizza sure do smell good, but the salad, the lean chicken, and vegetable plates are probably healthier. Food service workers can often provide information about the nutritional value of the food they serve.
When you eat lunch at the campus cafeteria, how do you decide what you’ll have? Do you go for fastfood options (burgers, fries, pizza) or do you choose the (hopefully) healthier option (salads, veggies)?
Please leave your thoughts in comments below.
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12 Responses to What’s for Lunch? Cafeteria Food!
Drew - February 17, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I love cafeteria food! I got through a lot of college working in high end restaurants and there is nothing more that I would like at the end of the day than a gravy biscuit and some spaghetti. None of this is super healthy, but I keep a Google Doc spreadsheet that I use as a diet log. So far, I have lost 25 lbs eating much of what I like.
Err… running slightly off topic. But where students are- Good food is to be found on the cheap. You know, the Chinese place down the block, where for six dollars you can get enough food to have lunch and dinner. Or, the sandwich shop that sells the day old bread for half price (nod to Beezer’s near USC). Its also hard to go wrong eating at that run d0wn looking mexican place where they may or may not serve huge margaritas, but have great food anyway.
Billie - February 17, 2010 at 6:54 pm
LOL…. I totally understood what you meant. :-) On my campus, too, I just don’t go to the student union around 12:00 noon. It would take forever to get what I wanted and get back out.
Erin Templeton - February 18, 2010 at 11:02 am
My campus only offers two non-vending machine dining options: the main dining hall, and a fast-food-ish place at the student union (I teach at a very small school). I almost never go to the dining hall, but that’s largely for reasons having nothing to do with the food–I just usually end up eating at my desk or going home to let the dog out.
But many of my colleagues go to the dining hall on a regular basis, and the times I have gone over for meetings or whatnot, I haven’t minded the food. But it is hard to find healthy options unless you want to eat all salad all the time, which is kind of boring, especially when the salad bar options are not extensive. The upside is that the salad isn’t anymore expensive than the pizza or the tacos or whatever, but there aren’t many different ways to dress up lettuce and carrots, especially when you don’t want to go for the bacon, cheese, or other high-cal toppings.
Otis - February 17, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Oh! Totally did not intend to suggest not eating with students, but (at our location) to avoid the huge crush of people in the Dining Hall at that time. Eating with students, or with colleagues where students can give you “the nod” is part of the attraction. Well, that and getting a cheap healthy meal!
Billie - February 17, 2010 at 11:49 am
Brian and George, it is a sad fact that the foods that are healthier are usually more expensive. (No wonder there is an obesity problem in the United States……fat food is cheaper food.) But try as hard as I can, I can’t often resist (don’t want to resist the lure of french fries. I guess in my case, it’s not the bad angel, it’s the devil. Outright.
Billie - February 17, 2010 at 11:51 am
Otis, one of the things I like best about eating in the student cafeteria is sitting around students. I don’t have to be sitting with them (nor they with me), but we can acknowledge each other across the tables. We all seem a little more human in that instance.
Jason B. Jones - February 17, 2010 at 12:30 pm
One of the things I loved at Emory was eating, not at the student cafeteria, but at the hospital one.
Aimee and I were hospital-caf regulars when we went there. And you could eat relatively healthily for cheap, or you could roll with the fried chicken & mashed potatoes / pumpkin pie combo. (Also cheap.)
Not to be all nostalgic, but it was awesome.
Brian Croxall - February 17, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Oh yeah. I totally ate at the hospital cafeteria. No students, shorter lines, and better food.
Which I guess is an important point for all ProfHackers: seek out the campuses different dining options. The student center/food court might not be the only place. At my undergraduate institution, there was a cafe that was run by dietetics students. You had to make reservations, but the food there was cheap and good.
Brian Croxall - February 17, 2010 at 11:08 am
For me it is ALWAYS a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. They are cheap, especially for the amount of food that you get. It’s not as healthy as I could be, but one of the sad facts of life is that healthy stuff costs more.
George - February 17, 2010 at 11:10 am
Listening to the good angel? I get one of the prepackaged salads with chicken. They’re really good and reasonably priced.
Listening to the bad angel? A couple of slices of pizza. Costs a good bit less than the salad, too.
George - February 17, 2010 at 11:23 am
Listening to the really bad angel? An espresso drink from the campus coffee shop.
Otis - February 17, 2010 at 11:46 am
It’s all about choices. Cafeteria food is great at CCSU! And a good deal, and healthy too! But you need to make choices that are healthy, and not just let the sweet smell of french fries draw you away from the good choices. For $6 on our campus, you can eat all you want (not necessarily a healthy choice) have choices of three entrees, a well stocked deli, a large salad bar (two of them actually), vegan/vegetarian station, international… (probably the most healthy) and then there are burgers, fries, pizza, cakes, cookies, ice cream (though there are low fat and no sugar choices here too!) and up to 26 choices for beverages. The downside is… at noon… it is student peak participation time. But if you hold off to 1:30, or get there before 11:45… you’re golden. Bring some colleagues and take over a couple of tables!