<p>I know that the food must vary from school to school but, in every catalog I look through, the menus look unbelievable. Is the food really that good? Maybe it's the variety that looks so appealing...</p>
<p>While I can’t speak for every individual school, we asked the student tour guides at every school we visited (about 8) and NO ONE found the food appealing–they all had a similar response that is it cafeteria food and it gets boring over time. And, having S at BS–get prepared for lots of pizza and junk that gets brought into the dorm rooms. . . S came home craving decent home cook meals and tales of bad eating at school</p>
<p>Andover has great food (I’ve had it on random days, not just parents weekend), and it’s very possible to make healthy choices there. Maybe because it’s a relatively big school, they are able to have lots of choices daily. I know that Hotchkiss tries to use locally grown foods when they can (and there are lots of farms nearby), and I had a tasty meal there once.I suspect that many of these schools have decent food, very different from the institutional food in my college days. My daughter loves to be taken out to a restaurant when I visit, but I think it’s as much for a break from the scene as for the different food.</p>
<p>I’d say the food at most schools isn’t bad per se, it’s more that there’s little variety and the food tends to be somewhat bland [it has to appease hundreds of people so it tends to not be really salty, garlicky, oniony, spicy or anything else i like]. You can get bored of it, but the occasional pizza or chinese delivery generally cures that.</p>
<p>That’s generally what we heard. The food is OK, but that it gets kind of repetitive.</p>
<p>taft has amazing food. just spent a summer there. the pizza they make is baked on a open fire oven. delicous! btw, i hate pizza and i loved tafts</p>
<p>Oh, the foods really good on special occasions though, I forgot to mention that. There are like 3 sit-down dinners [start of school, thanksgiving and holiday], barbecues [there were like 2-they’re a treat for the students], revisit days, and any food for alumni events/the trustees, which of course the students don’t get. There are also a very few grade-specific events. One of the dorm heads always makes food on easter for students who are still on campus, and dorms at the end of the year make or get food for their residents. So there are a few good meals, but they are by no means a regular occurrence.</p>
<p>I personally love sleeping over at local friends’ [day students and a friend/former roommate that lives one state over] houses because the food is always good.</p>
<p>OP, let your own tastebuds and eating habits/preferences decide and disregard what everyone else has said.</p>
<p>well in this case, your S/D</p>
<p>Our tour guide at Groton RAVED about how good the food is there…said it was better than his mom’s (“no offense to her, she’s a good cook, but…”) 
He was a day student, but said he stayed for dinner most nights because the food was so good…</p>
<p>My wife and I always kid each other that the best food is the food that someone else cooks. When we visit our son, I think we’ll love the food in the dining halls!</p>
<p>The food is not bad for a month, maybe two months, but by the eighth month, it never looks appealing.</p>
<p>My son goes to NMH (my older son did as well) and they (and we) think the food is wonderful. I love to cook, so they don’t think it’s as good as mom’s, but it is all home-made; we know the chef as he used to own a wonderful cafe in the town we live in. The desserts are particurly delicious…everything is made fresh from scratch daily…no boxed mixes. Baking is one of my favorite pasttimes, and I have requested recipes from them. Once we were there for an event and they served homemade donuts and cider that they make from apples in their orchard. They even make their own ice cream using milk and cream from their own cows, maple syrupe from their own trees, and blackberries, raspberries and blueberries from their orchards (this is new this year…they used to send out the cream and milk to a local gourmet ice cream shop, but they just purchased the equipment to complete the process themselves). Much of the produce used in the cafeteria is organic and locally grown/purchased.</p>
<p>Based on my S’s comments I would have to agree with Hockeykid841 the food is good for a month or two but after that it all looks and tastes the same.</p>
<p>I’m mostly worried about my second S that will start in the fall. He is what we affectionately call a whiteatarian- he only eats white food. Pasta no sauce, rice, bread, potatoes, cereal, oh and chocolate. So far the only proteins he will eat are the very occasional scrambled eggs, peanut butter, and chicken nuggets not chicken mind you only chicken nuggets. Should be an interesting experience for him!</p>
<p>well I can agree that if you were a parent going to eat at your childs school a few times a year isn’t bad. Otherwise, when you eat three meals a day there pretty much ever day… youre trapped. As many others have mentioned, the first few months are good. But trust me, and this stands for so many boarding schools, staying interested in the food gets really really hard after a while. Oh, and parents may not pick up on this, but students start to recognize things when they show up again and again. </p>
<p>This, however, is not to say that there are some things that we all love that show up every week. its fantastic Where I go the food is good but there really is only so high of a quality that you can make for the masses. When I go to colleges to visit with friends, or even just on tours, the food there is so much better! Probably because they have multiple kitchens and we only have one.</p>
<p>Hotchkiss is on a 3 week menu rotation and the food is fine, but it does get repetitive. My son’s favorite is when they serve Thanksgiving-like meals. What I was not prepared for is how often he would order food. As a teenage boy, he is constantly HUNGRY!!! Even if he filled up completely at 6:00, he would be ready for another meal at 10:00, which is when study hall ends. This means many, many, many orders for pizza and stromboli. At first, I was a little miffed and asked if he had to order so often, but really, how can I deny him money for food? I really wish there was a late night snack option in the cafeteria but I guess it has to close sometime. Just keep this in mind and budget accordingly.</p>
<p>The ordering pizza questions actually raises another, somewhat related, issue. Do kids typically have money lying around to order food? I don’t want my son to be spending money he doesn’t have, but I also don’t want him to be the kid in the dorm eating everyone’s pizza! Do kids really order out a lot? Probably depends on the school…</p>
<p>At this point, everyone is moving through their packing lists. You may want to purchase food items for him to store in his room. Nothing perishable or messy, obviously, but rice bowls, noodles, protein bars, etc. The mass pizza order is probably inevitable but he may be more likely to decline if there’s something in the room he can munch on.
I’m not sure how often your son will come home or you will go to campus but one thing that helps my son is when I prepare a special dishes for him to take back for he and his roommate to share (favorite - shrimp/pasta/fresh brocolli). Most dorms have full sized refrigerators, stoves and microwaves so storage and heating shouldn’t be an issue.</p>
<p>Kaileigh is right, growing boys seem to eat another whole meal at nighttime study hall break. THey are just that hungry after a full day of classes and sports. We had to increase the allowance, with the understanding that he would NOT be the kid who always eats everyone else’s pizza, chinese food etc. Choate has food vendors who come at break and park right outside the big freshman boys’ dorm LOL. They can also go to the snack bar at the student center for hamburgers, milkshakes etc. but it involves a longer walk.</p>
<p>I can this happening with my son. “I’m not hungry” are not words that I have heard in the past three years. One of the things we liked about NMH was that there was PBandJ and cereal available in the dorm common room.</p>