This discussion was created from comments split from: Penn poltical scene.
@runswimyoga “@Much2learn I don’t know I think most of the students at Penn WOULD protest the dining food… if they had the time in their overly scheduled busy schedules… my son is threatening a hunger strike 
JK”
It is true that the freshman food is not good. I think they should protest it.
The vast majority of the complaints that I hear from D when she was a freshman were about the food. Administrators need to visit Cornell where students love the food.
Oh my gosh! I just had this conversation with my son. He said he ventured down to his cafeteria to try it one more time, and he regrets it. He finds food here and there on campus, but apparently what’s in his dorm is pretty bad. I told him he needs to voice his opinion to Penn dining. Do they really listen?
Sorry for all the healthy people on board here, but my son could do with sushi, hamburgers and pizza in his cafeteria. He said the only thing that looked good to him was a plain salad.
Add Princeton to the list of amazing food. Oldest son and I visited there back in 2011, and I could not believe what I saw! I felt like I was at a 4 star restaurant. Crazy.
One of the factors for my son moving off campus as a soph was the food. After he couldn’t take it anymore, I had the pleasure of paying for a meal plan and buying him meals everyday off campus. Now I just pay for the food off campus. Much better.
@sbjdorlo “I told him he needs to voice his opinion to Penn dining. Do they really listen?”
Maybe eventually if there are enough complaints, but it is ongoing. I think it has not changed because only Freshman are forced to get a meal plan.
For our D, the food was becoming a significant distraction for her, and I had to encourage her to use up the minimum plan when she could, but to spend some money to get better quality fresh salads, fruit and other things that she is used to. For example, she does not like it if the only fruit available every day is musk melon because it is the cheapest. D likes a wide range of fruits. I can’t think if a single fruit she will not eat. She also doesn’t think that some iceberg lettuce in a bowl with a few carrot shavings is a salad. Again, it does not need to be fancy, but include a broader range of greens and fresh vegetables, and not only the cheapest ones.
She did not want to spend the money, but it was clearly becoming a distraction, and I told her that while it did create an added expense, what we really could not afford was for her to be distracted by it, and not be focused on her classes and activities. Once she found some local places that with good food at decent prices that she could blend in with using up her meal plan at the school, everything went much better.
YES, In looking at my credit card, I see charges every day now from Chipotle, Honey Grow, Sweet Green and Bobbys Burgers near U Penn- my son says they are "emergencies"bc he can never find food to eat on campus or at the hours he needs to eat… he has classes everyday from 9am till 2 and then music orchestra or social stuff from 5-9 so he tries to eat between 2-5pm or after 9pm …according to him nothing on campus is open for serving food at those hours… agh… I think we parents need to start a protest about this …this is getting very expensive … Cant wait until next year when the mandatory but no food available meal plan won’t be required …!
I saw a Daily Penn or Under the Button satire story on how every year the students running for class offices run on a platform to fix the campus dining food and increase the hours … but every year they fail…
@runswimyoga I know. I am not buying the story that, “We can’t afford better food because we only have a $10.7 billion endowment.” lol
Also, the school does seem to subsidize just about every club to offer free food because that encourages attendance. If your student is involved with a number of clubs, there are a lot of free meals available that way.
Right there with you two! My son goes to the Fresh Grocer at least once or twice a week, and does fast food (Chipotle, McDonalds) once a week or so, as well. He did say he found a place on campus that had some good food, and he uses his dining dollars for that, but found that the Fresh Grocer was cheaper.
I also told him not to worry about how much he was spending. We are very blessed to have excellent financial aid, so I am not going to stress about paying for food for my very thin son.
Sorry to detail the political thread.
Be veryyyyy wary of the schools with good food: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/05-food-fight
I don’t love Malcolm Gladwell (at all) and I think his podcast is kind of absurd sometimes and deeply sanctimonious-- but that particular episode had some good points.
10.7Billion might seem like a lot but Penn does a lot with it. Penn punches far above it’s weight in terms of research and quality of teaching. There’s a reason we comfortably compete with the Harvards and Yales of the world despite having a significantly smaller endowment. Part of the price of that competition is food for undergrads.
Of course if y’all want to start a fundraising campaign among the Penn community to finance better food options on campus, I’m sure Penn would be willing to listen 
@penncas2014 Honestly, I don’t think they need to spend more money. I just think the contract is poorly written.
Is there incentive to have better food? Is there incentive to try to get students to want to eat there?
If the vendor makes more money when students eat elsewhere, that is what they will do. If breakfast food is cheaper than Lunch and dinner, then they will make breakfast good, but lunch and dinner bland, to nudge students to maximize profit.
So in addition to the $69,000 price tag I now have to start and finance a fundraising campaign so my kid can get a decent meal, or for that matter, any meal at all around his athletic schedule. Got it.
No, you definitely don’t have to start a fundraising campaign so that he can get a decent meal. You can get a decent meal in the dining halls. I would also say that Houston Hall has good food (as opposed to decent) and that Penn Hillel, at which all students can eat, has good food as well. Also. the area around Penn is overflowing with delicious and relatively inexpensive options (unlike Columbia, for example, where the good options are not across the street from the campus and they certainly aren’t cheap). In all, it’s not hard to eat well at Penn even if you don’t want to cook. The food in the dining halls isn’t great but it’s fine on the whole. There were definitely meals I enjoyed there, and there were definitely meals I did not enjoy. If you want it to be great, though, then you might want to consider the fundraising campaign 
Agree. My son is just super picky (and super skinny). The biggest problem is simply that freshmen have to have a certain meal plan that includes swipes rather than just dining dollars. My son is using up a lot of dining dollars going to the places that he likes. For most kids, dining hall food will be ok. I would assume my son would just like to have dining dollars like upper classmen are allowed to have.
http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/dining/dining-plans/upper-class-dining-plans.html
@PennCAS2014 I’m confused, my son told me that to eat at Penn Hillel as an option for a meal swipe, it would cost him extra money… also that meals there are only after certain religious services and since he is not Jewish, he doesn’t know when those services are… its not listed anywhere on campus express… how is he supposed to know when Penn Hillel has food available?
@runswimyoga your son is mostly right-- to eat at Penn hillel it costs 1 Meal Swipe + 3 Dining Dollars. Because they’re dining dollars and not regular money i always consider them part of the meal plan- but it is a little extra. Also- Hillel is open for lunch and dinner on Monday - Friday and for lunch on Saturday. The hours are available on the Hillel Dining website. A lot of students don’t go assuming that the food is only for observant jewish students but everyone is welcome in my experience. It might be smart to go with a jewish friend the first time, though, just to be sure you don’t accidentally take a fork from the dairy section into the meat section or something like that. I always found that the food at HIllel was more carefully prepared (partially due to the fact that its kosher). It was a good option to shake things up when we couldn’t handle another night at Commons (which i can willfully admit is not a good dining hall. But Hill Brunch was on point every weekend!)
I think the whole food is grossly exaggerated. The food is more than decent. It is the best college food out there? Probably not. However, it is nutritious, made of good ingredients, its healthy and there is a good variety to choose from.
I agree with @Penn95. The dining halls have gotten better the past few years. In particular, the food in New College House is pretty good and most students I’ve spoken to agree that it’s better than the other dining halls (which is kind of odd since the food is prepared in 1920 Commons). The main complaint I hear about meal plans is that they’re very expensive, which is a valid point. Students should check the menus online to see which dining hall they should go to if they are a picky eater.