For medical reasons, my kid must avoid processed foods, grains, and starches. Therefore college dining halls are important factors.
I’ve been told that Bon Appetit is one of the best contractors in terms of good labeling and lots of fresh, healthful options. I asked the company for a list of colleges they serve, but they declined.
I would love some suggestions for schools with good food, for a high-stats but unhooked student with undecided major.
Wesleyan contracts with Bon Appetit
Same with Hamilton - my DD had a friend from visit and he said it tasted the same as Wes 
Lafayette College is also with Bon Appetit. But I’m not sure that I’d just look for one food provider as things can vary greatly from one school to another in terms of offerings, set-up etc. For any of your child’s top choice colleges I would visit the main divining hall and contact or even meet with someone from Dining Services (usually contact information is on each college’s website) to get detailed information about what is available.
I don’t know what food service they use, but my daughter says that the food at Cornell is awesome. She said that in particular, the Risley dining hall is fantastic for fresh vegetables - she makes a point of going there a few times a week to get her veggie intake. I believe the entire dining hall is gluten-free as well.
Carleton, Colorado College, Emory, WUSTL, St. Olaf and Macalaster are all Bon Appetit and known for good food, that I can either vouch for first hand or through family members.
Bates and Bowdoin have good food but aren’t BA to my knowledge.
Here’s a link that should be helpful:
http://www.bamco.com/blog/bon-appetit-feeds-13-75-best-colleges-food-america/
University of British Columbia in Vancouver has a huge variety of fresh, locally sourced food. Standards are very high.
http://www.food.ubc.ca/responsibility/
@Hanna is the expert in college dining rooms as she visits a lot of schools. Colorado got high marks from her because of the international dining hall.
My daughter has self imposed restrictions (picky, and doesn’t like anything fried or processed). Even though her school has a dining hall with many offerings and features international foods, she tired of it quickly. Her boyfriend ate there every day for 5 years and thought it was wonderful.
Some of the top Bon Appetit schools appear below through a related article and include WUStL, St. Olaf, MIT, Duke, Wheaton (Illinois), Wesleyan (CT), Carleton, Penn, Pitzer, JHU, Mills, Hamilton and Roger Williams:
http://www.bamco.com/blog/the-daily-meals-60-best-colleges-for-food-in-america/
Bon Appetit has different levels of service and different colleges have different dining plans with them (a friend used to work for BA). So the fact that a college contracts with them won’t guarantee lots of fresh non-processed foods.
In my experience most colleges we visited, mostly LACs with just one or two dining halls, had plenty of fresh foods. Always a salad bar, a hot area with veggies and meats and fish, plus “junkier” options like a burger grill and pizza area. Some had more than that…stir fry where you choose your ingredients and they cook it there, rotating “ethnic” areas etc.
Many colleges are really into farm-to-table local stuff, Denison is one that switched to a “higher” level of food service to get fresher options. Amherst has its own farm that supplies some of its food.
Some colleges put their daily menus online too, so if you can’t visit you can get a sense of what’s on offer through the seasons. For example: https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/housing-dining/dining/menu and http://denison.cafebonappetit.com/
I know that D’s school AYCE dining hall has lots of fresh items including salad bar, fresh fruit and homemade baked items every day. They just opened a great cafe that I ate at this past weekend…greek salad loaded with everything you can imagine (sun-dried tomatoes, olives, artichokes) which I topped with broiled salmon, yummy. I think it was $5.99 including bottled water.
This article would be worth reading through and includes options such as Wesleyan, Cornell, Oberlin and Northwestern:
https://www.collegemagazine.com/top-10-veganveggie-friendly-colleges/
The University of Richmond does not use a food services contractor. The food is excellent and they work very hard to accommodate special diets for students. https://dining.richmond.edu
It is also a great school, #23 LAC in current USNWR ranking, if that matters to you. I have a 2016 UR graduate currently in a PhD program, as well a current UR senior, and they have had incredible opportunities, academic and otherwise.
Last year’s admission rate was around 33%. 75%ile SAT score: 1480
75%ile ACT score: 33
Last year’s student profile: https://admissions.richmond.edu/studentprofile/index.html
Wesleyan has a farm, also: http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/tag/long-lane-farm/
Bates, Bowdoin and Middlebury also are often said to have great food.
We were pretty underwhelmed with Middlebury’s food despite hearing good things about it. Perhaps we were there on a bad day.
We liked Middlebury’s food a lot.
And it is a great place to visit because it is free! We waited for a while outside the dining hall near a desk for someone to come collect our money. Then a student came over and told us that, since it is an unlimited visits food plan for students, no one ever collects money, and we should just come in and eat. So we did. And again the next day. Two free meals with really delicious food, some of it with signs naming the farm it came from.
We joked about moving to the town to eat free every day!
Yes, Vassar has taken recent steps to upgrade its food and meal plans. Exciting!
DS went to a Sodexo school - not good. Not sure if all Sodexo schools are bad, but beware.
Also, consider schools that don’t require a meal plan and have cook for yourself options.