Do you ever realize that there really isn’t much variety when it comes to dining here at UR? I mean, they say that the variety comes from Danforth with each station having different types of food; however, have you ever realized that the stations really do not vary that much? You have your generic soups and then moving along the “food line,” a pretty standard pasta station, your salad bar and then some sort of stir fry, usually Mongolian beef. Now choose to venture over to the other side and you will most certainly see some sort of vegetarian wrap or stir fry, a meat and rice dish and, lastly, some sort of burger product. Although the University does throw in some nice different types of food every now and then, you can almost guarantee you will see the same things the majority of time. The same goes for both the Pit and Douglass. The only type of variety you may find would be in the Mel — that is, if you have the Declining to spare.
It just seems that the school is doing an injustice to the students. With the amount of money spent on tuition, including meal plans and what not, it seems that there would be a better variety of foods. We should open dining up to private vendors and maybe begin to steer away from ARAMARK a little more. If you really think about it, you probably eat the same thing at least three times a week; it’s actually absurd that there is that little to choose from.
With this said, it should come as no shock that as seniors begin to fill out their Senior Surveys they will most likely focus on dining as one of their points about the food here at the U R. I mean, at Geneseo, they have a Taco Bell and a Burger King as a part of their dining. In terms of health it may not be the best but we all need a little change.
It can basically be summed up in a few last words: Dining Services needs to know that variety is the spice of life, they need to branch out and we need to let them know this by filling out comment cards and making our voices be heard.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Adam Kozak // Mar 29, 2009 at 9:47 pm
As far as our food goes, it’s really not all that bad when compared to a lot of other universities. Between Douglas, Danforth, the Pit, and the Mel, you can get distinctly different meals. Danforth lunch in particular is pretty good, and the several coffee shops on campus are a good place to grab a snack or to satisfy your caffeine addiction (with a variety of blends to boot).
I’ll admit, however, that as my second year comes to a close, I am getting a little tired of the same foods week after week. In particular, the fact that most of the food is made with the same exact ingredients. The chicken in your salad is the same chicken from the Mongolian grill is the same chicken in your Blimpie wrap. They try to combine the ingredients in different ways, but you can taste the similarities. And when I look forward to another two years of more of the same, I do cringe just a little bit. However, I suppose it’s just a side-effect of dining services providing consistently adequate food on a daily basis. If they were to constantly change the menus, then workers would have to quickly pick up the new recipes, which may result in some batches that would leave students complaining even more.
2 Julia Glantz // Mar 30, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I agree with both of you. There isn’t enough variety of food on this campus, and, with the lack of “college town” around UR, we don’t have many off-campus options, either. Also, for people on restricted diets (gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, reduced-calorie) there are almost no options - just enough so that the school doesn’t get sued. I for one am tired of grilled chicken (with no seasoning or sauce), salads, and skim milk - the only completely healthy options I’ve found here. The prices of the meal plans are insane, too; even if my diet weren’t restricted, I could never use all that they force me to pay for. The repetition, unfair pricing, and lack of an end in sight is really quite depressing.
3 Andrea Polanski // Apr 4, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I would also love to see more healthy options on campus. What about alternating in Indian, Thai, or Mexican entrees? (And I mean alternating, not just consistently adding in one or two dishes that will quickly become as routine as the rest.) A return of the custom stir-fry station, to Douglass to keep it separate from the Mongolian beef station, would be another easily variable option.
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