<p>Is there a website that provides observations about the quality of food on the nation's campuses? I realize that rating food quality involves a degree of subjectivity, but I am curious after having visited Carnegie Mellon University recently with my son. CMU has many strong points, but the food is not one of them, and I am asking myself why a parent should pay such a high price for an education at a university that has apparently given so little thought to the students' health.</p>
<p>As a way of focusing their own resources on education, many fine colleges outsource student food services to big companies. Rarely do they have much say in what is offered to students.</p>
<p>There are many aspects to food “quality,” some of which are health related and some of which are not.</p>
<p>If Carnegie Mellon is serving spoiled food or not giving students access to fruits and vegetables, that would be both health- and quality-related. But if they’re simply providing limited variety or if the cooking is not of the caliber you would expect at a top restaurant, that may be a disappointment, but it’s not a health issue.</p>
<p>^I can attest to the fact that fruits and vegetables are available, and the food is not spoiled, so there’s that ;)</p>
<p>Yes, CMU food is not great, but not particularly worse than other colleges, IMO. I guess the only things you can do are a) try and realize that certain other aspects of CMU may make dealing with the mediocre food offerings worth it, and b) get off the meal plan sophomore year :p</p>
<p>In all seriousness, though, if you would like to PM me, I would be happy to discuss healthy food options at CMU with you more - if you visited during the summer, ~80% of the food places open during the year are closed, so you would have gotten a completely skewed view. In addition, the dining system at CMU is a little hard to navigate, so there are more healthy options than one might initially believe (took me a while to figure this out myself).</p>
<p>I generally consider myself to be a very healthy eater, and am quite concerned with food quality - however, while one year on the meal plan was enough more me, there are ways to make it work, IMO.</p>
<p>Our expectations for our kids’ nutrition should be a lot higher than just hoping for a cafeteria without spoiled food. After all, our kids will be spending 4 years at these places, and they will be learning how to manage their health as well as their time studying. </p>
<p>Yes, we were at CMU during the summer and maybe I happened to choose one of the least interesting food areas. The Indian food that I had was greasy and salty–I took a few bites and threw the rest away. My son was happy with his sandwich at another station, but how many sandwiches is it going to take for him or anyone else to demand some variety? I took a look at the forums on CMU and the postings there (as does the one above) suggested that most students exit the food plan as soon as they can. What does that say about CMU’s success at attracting students to its dining areas?</p>
<p>Outsourcing in principle provides CMU with flexibility in contracting with its vendors, but it does not appear that CMU is actually taking advantage of that flexibility. It should be viewing its vendors on an annual basis and requiring them to submit detailed menus (with nutritional info). It is in a college’s best long-term interest to promote healthy lifestyles.</p>
<p>Also Menlopark mom, colleges have a lot of say in what food is served. Their size gives them a lot of bargaining power.</p>
<p>Some students like that, others do not. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean they won’t.</p>
<p>Also, alot of campuses have been going on the “healthy lifestyle” kick. My school in particular decided to try and get a lot of organic foods (not that it really helps the food much, but at least they tried).</p>
<p>If you go during the summer, like another poster said, you haven’t seen much of anything that the school has to offer.</p>
<p>I’m not going to try and argue that CMU food is great. That is not true, and I fully admit that. What I will try to point out is that once again, 99% of campus dining options are closed during the summer (literally, not figuratively - they shut down everything except the places in the University Center), and that perhaps there are other aspects of CMU that might make it worth dealing with a less than ideal meal plan for a year.</p>
<p>Signed, A CMU Sophomore who is now happily eating her own self-prepared, healthy food ;)</p>
<p>DS went to a large university. The food wasn’t 4 star restaurant quality but there was a large variety of foods, plentiful fresh veggies, an assortment of hot entrees, and several stations for various ethic food choices. Lots of options from which to choose.</p>
<p>DD went to a smaller university with very good food…(we thought). Most of their produce was locally grown (In CA), food was well prepared…and again many stations set up to provide choices.</p>
<p>In both cases, their dining hall “points” could be used at many off campus eateries as well.</p>
<p>They both made good choices of foods, and neither gained the “freshman 15” but both were also active. These school also had OUTSTANDING fitness centers.</p>
<p>No health concerns related to the food served.</p>
<p>Coming from a country where meal plans are unusual, and most students live off sandwiches/microwave meals/pot noodles/takeout when away, I think everyone has survived ok!</p>
<p>I had to teach myself to cook, which is a good thing.
I’m now on a year abroad, and although the meal plan means instant food (and no washing up), I already miss cooking my own meals.</p>
<p>I think it would be better if there was the option to stay off the meal plan.
Buying an entire kitchen set and groceries would be a waste of money now.</p>
<p>The quality of food at the universities should be the least of your healthy food/eating worries. Have you seen the absolute crap that they serve at the majority of the public K-12 schools? College food is gourmet compared to that crap. Breaded cheese sticks as the entree? Pork mystery meat riblets? Chicken nuggets?</p>
<p>James Madison University… in your home state of VA… was ranked by the Princeton Review at #3 in the Best Campus Food category. I am a faculty member, a healthy eater (most of the time), and a very good cook, and I get food on campus on a relatively regular basis. There are many healthy options.</p>
<p>You may want to check out the Princeton Review list for other schools on your child’s list.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>My son’s school, Bates, has fabulous food. It is not outsourced. They also purchase a lot of the food from local farmers. I was just reading on their website how they are having a bit of a blueberry crisis as the local farm where they get their blueberries had damage from Irene. </p>
<p>The beef they purchase is grass fed from a local farm, too. </p>
<p>All students are the meal plan which is unlimited for everyone for all four years. </p>
<p>According to what I read the school spends $50K+ a week to feed 1600 students.</p>
<p>If they only spend 50k for that, it’s a bargain, since that’s under $32 per student per week–especially if the labor costs for preparing the food is included in that!</p>
<p>I attended Smith and liked the food. There’s good variety among the different dining rooms with healthy and unhealthy options. A lot of the food is local (but not all–no way to get certain items to grow in Massachusetts!) and they’re helpful with vegan/kosher/halal/allergies/etc.</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Dining Services](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/diningservices/index.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/diningservices/index.php) has lots of menus and other info.</p>
<p>Stacy, I don’t know, the article said $50K+ for food. Also, Sat and Sunday there are only two meals, brunch and dinner, so a little bit more than $32. </p>
<p>My mom and sister both went to Smith ('50 and '76) but were there when they ate family style in their house on linen table cloths. They were both in Jordan.</p>
<p>Bilodeau – We bought lunch at the Indian counter in the CMU University Center on our visit this past August, and were pleased with the taste and quality. Yes, the dal was a little salty, but I cook almost entirely without added salt, so find almost all prepared food too salty. Their palak paneer was fresh, and the naan was warm and springy. The curried cauliflower was particularly tasty. Nothing was excessively greasy. Perhaps you just caught them on a bad day?</p>
<p>We have sampled on-campus food during visits at a large number of different colleges this past year, and have yet to be truly disappointed. College food is much improved from the brown-edged iceberg lettuce and “casserole of the day” which were cafeteria staples at my alma mater 30-ish years ago. :p</p>
<p>Agreed, mihcal1, univeristy foodservice has definitely ‘come a long way, baby’. I had two D’s go through the college search process over the last 8 years and the BIG difference I’ve seen is the emergence of ‘stations’, like those you see at a buffet in Las Vegas. Most main ethnic diversities are covered, and probably twice as much availability of fresh fruits & vegetables, a very good thing. A far cry from 35 years ago, with the 2 or 3 entrees and a puny salad bar with two iceberg lettuce receptacles, one for United Farm Workers and for not!</p>
<p>I will say, however, that with all these different choices, healthy eating is definitely not guaranteed. I still have noticed a ton of junk food available. Why? 'Cause that’s what college kids LIKE TO EAT! They have no idea how their metabolisms will slow down over the years. Sour grapes? A little… :)</p>
<p>Finally, the coolest thing I’ve seen is at UW-Madison, where their website lists the nutritional content of every foodservice item:</p>
<p>[Housing</a> Dining and Culinary Services – Nutrition](<a href=“http://www.housing.wisc.edu/dining/nutrition/]Housing”>Nutrition & Allergens – University Housing – UW–Madison)</p>
<p>Oh, the memories! Soupy eggs and biscuits-with-gravy for breakfast. Pizza for lunch, with chocolate milk from the “Brown Cow” dispenser. Mystery casserole for dinner, followed by artificial vanilla flavored soft-serve ice cream … and Red Cross wouldn’t let me donate blood because I didn’t weigh enough.</p>
<p>Youth is wasted on the young. :p</p>
<p>I agree, from what I’ve read and from what my husband says (he’s sampled the food at a couple more colleges than I have), college food has improved tremendously since we were college students. Which was why I was surprised by what I saw at CMU. Granted, this was a summer visit, and maybe it was a bad day. Our tour guide had recommended The Exchange, which the CMU material I have states is the most popular on-campus eatery. We headed there first. We were turned off by the very small eating area. It must be that most of the CMU students grab a quick lunch and go elsewhere (where?) to eat. Maybe the food options were also very limited during the summer. My son took a quick look and wanted to elsewhere. College guides might survey the % of students that remain on the university’s meal plan after the first year (which appears to be mandatory, unless it is a community college). That may not tell us much about the nutritional quality but will say something about the environment for sharing ideas and whatnot among students. (Isn’t that what we want to see in a good college or university?) I also like the U-Wisconsin move to provide the nutritional information. </p>
<p>(Mihcal1, at the Taste of India station, the selection was very limited, as the buffet area was closed down. I picked out no more than two pieces of cheese from my palak paneer–one of the 3 options that I chose. You must not have tried the chicken curry.)</p>
<p>Hi KatMT, I’m glad to hear that food is another strong area of the environment at James Madison University’s (JMU). JMU is well-known to our school and my son wants to visit there, going on what he’s heard from his friends. I have been impressed with the attention given to writing at JMU. However, based on what I saw on JMU’s website, it didn’t appear that there’s a lot of offerings in chemistry, which is what he wants to major in, but we will be investigating this further.</p>