Food at Swarthmore?

<p>According to most college guides (and student-run College *******), the food at Swarthmore is awful. I understand that college is meant for learning and not for eating, but I'd like to hear your opinions on the food at Swat being that most of the year is spent at college.</p>

<p>*student-run College p r o w l e r</p>

<p>The food isn’t terrible, but it is repetitive, and there is only one main dining hall on campus, so there is no variety. I would say that is the main issue.</p>

<p>Both my kids found its greasiness the worst thing about it. That said, one can take vegies from the salad bar and create fresh and nutritious concoctions that bypass the prepared offerings, but that does take some work. My kids were both much happier when they moved off-capmus and started cooking for themselves.</p>

<p>I actually liked the food at Swat for the most part. I think they do a lot better than many other schools where food is concerned. </p>

<p>“No variety” – hmm, that’s all relative. At each meal there are 3+ main options (bar line, main line and vegetarian line) plus the standard deli, grill, and salad fare. The lines are generally on a 1-4 week rotation (so for instance, pasta bar happens twice a week and Indian bar once a month). Now, after 3-4 years eating the same rotations, yes, things can feel repetitive. But students also like to complain, and the dining hall is an easy mark. </p>

<p>One big advantage of Swat’s dining hall is that it’s not run by a big corporation like Sysco – which means that the staff can be, and are, responsive to student tastes and change what is offered based on suggestions. During my time there (2007-2011) healthy options increased significantly, because students campaigned for it and showed they’d actually eat the healthier food. </p>

<p>They do an okay job at dealing with dietary restrictions, but many of the folks I knew with more intense dietary needs (e.g. gluten-free vegan, vegetarian with a soy allergy) were happier once they moved off campus & started cooking for themselves.</p>

<p>We visited campus recently and ate in the cafeteria. What struck me was that the physical building was sort of cave-like (down on the bottom level with big stone walls, a bit dark in my opinion), with lots of nooks and crannies to eat in. I kept getting lost when I left the table… my daughter, who is a bit introverted, liked the sort of smaller room feeling compared to some other cafeterias. Can’t even remember the actual food, honestly.</p>

<p>My son is at Swat now. He doesn’t complain so much about the food as he does about the repitition. I am a little baffled by the complaint. I’d like to assure you he ate the same dishes much more than once every 28 days at home. I actually have 3 or 4 things that I make every week, every single week (on mondays it is salmon with fresh bakery bread and a veggie)! I do not beleive that there are many households that have more variety than offered at most college caffeterias. I think the real problem is that it is mass produced, cafeteria food. No matter how good the quality is, how good the recipies are, this is a difficult thing to overcome. </p>

<p>That being said, it is difficult to express how much my son loves Swat. The people, the academics, everything about the experience. Food is food. If the fit is good academically don’t let concerns about the menu hold you back.</p>

<p>My son did not like the food at Swat when he was there (graduated in 2008). He used to go elsewhere (and we stopped paying for the meal plan) for most of his stay. He stayed off-campus for his last year, so he cooked himself (together with his other apartment mates). He said the meals were repetitive and the hours were not amenable to his schedule. He could not go have dinner at 5PM because he had classes in the evening or lab or whatever…I don’t remember the hours but it is in the gazette and Swat website. </p>

<p>This is just my son’s opinion. Everytime we went and ate there as parents we loved it.</p>

<p>I have an '07 grad and a current soph and I’ve eaten there several times. The food was “acceptable” to both of them. They always found something to eat. The menus do seem to be on a 4 week rotation generally, and a complaint I hear is that the pasta bar is so in demand that the lines for it are very long. I think that college food is sort of bland to appeal to the most students. I cannot agree with the OP’s findings that the food is “awful.” My two students would disagree.</p>

<p>As an aside, since living off campus has been mentioned more than once in this thread, lest anyone reading get the wrong idea, the vast majority of students live on campus all 4 years. I have seen estimates over the years of 93%-96% living on campus. It’s part of what makes Swat, Swat. :)</p>

<p>Yes, I agree with what momof3sons said. My son’s living a stone’s throw away (right in front of the campus) was for other reasons - not the food. And a very big majority of people live on campus.</p>

<p>The cafeteria menu works on a monthly cycle. Breakfast is the same every day, except perhaps on holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. Lunch and dinner are different every day. Every lunch and dinner meal has fourteen different hot foods, plus freshly grilled sandwiches, plus 8 cereals, plus ice cream and frozen yogurt, plus a condiments bar (which includes non-condiment things like raisins, eggs, and honey), plus a waffle iron, plus popcorn (I don’t know why we have it, but we do), plus a salad bar, plus desert. Some foods are categorized into “bars,” like pizza bar, Caribbean bar, pasta bar, et cetera.</p>

<p>We have pasta bar six times every month, and wing bar twice every month. A lot of people hate pasta bar because of its frequency, and I’ve heard some people complain that there’s too much chicken. I like chicken, and I’m excited to eat wing bar tomorrow.</p>

<p>People’s opinions on Sharples are shaped by their histories of privilege. I went to public school in Philadelphia, where I had one option of frozen food every day, and sometimes I was allergic to that one option. I think that Sharples is a wonderful place to eat.</p>

<p>This is a screenshot of part of the monthly schedule:</p>

<p>[View</a> image: Swarthmore Menu](<a href=“Swarthmore Menu — Postimages”>Swarthmore Menu — Postimages)</p>

<p>^I agree with the history of privilege part. </p>

<p>Also, they make a mean Philly cheese steak at Sharples.</p>

<p>I am pleased with the options at Sharples. My only real gripe is the lack of variety of fresh fruits. I eat VERY healthfully and have been pleased with my options.</p>

<p>Frumens, I would hesitate to say that there are fourteen different hot foods at each lunch and dinner meal, especially, for example, at pasta bar, when three of those fourteen receptacles are filled with three different kinds of pasta sauce and two are filled with different kinds of pasta.</p>

<p>But I’m just nitpicking here. I agree with the overall sentiment of your post :)</p>

<p>I agree with the lack of fresh fruit. This is a major reason why the line is super-long when there’s fruit salad. </p>

<p>Sometimes the food is just disgusting (super-greasy, all fried and unhealthy), but at least there’s a reliable salad bar, and an area where you can make your own sandwich. Anyway, to put things in perspective, thirty or forty years ago Sharples had much less variety than it does now. Yes, there are campuses where the food is much better (e.g. Bryn Mawr or Yale) but for a college cafeteria, Sharples is probably one of the better ones.</p>

<p>Do you always have a choice of say a soup and a sandwitch? Should be good enough I guess then.</p>

<p>Yep, 2 different soups every day and lots of variety for making your own sandwich plus a panini press.</p>

<p>My vegetarian kid complains of very limited selection, too much greasy food, and that fresh fruit is always and only apples, oranges and bananas. The catch is that Swat has one meal plan price no matter how little you eat. I KNOW this kid does not eat enough to make it worthwhile. I wish Swat would give different options, like an 8-meal/week option. And, look into this, but I believe if you live in their dorms, you must also buy the meal plan.</p>

<p>^That is true, you must be on the meal plan. If you live off campus, you can get any meal plan including an off-campus only meal plan of 5 lunches a week.</p>

<p>Buried within this otherwise bizarre student article, there is some welcome news: there are near-term plans for “repurposing” Sharples dining hall. I think that’s bureaucratic-speak for building a new dining hall and doing something else with the old one:

</p>

<p>[Is</a> the strategic plan a competitive plea for rankings? - The Phoenix](<a href=“http://swarthmorephoenix.com/2012/03/29/living/is-the-strategic-plan-a-competitive-plea-for-rankings]Is”>Is the strategic plan a competitive plea for rankings? - The Phoenix)</p>