The truth about Amherst food. MUST READ

Colleges and Universities A-Z Amherst College
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<p>If you think food isn’t an important aspect of your college life as I did when I was a senior, think again. The food at Amherst College is terrible. Unqualifiedly bad. Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “oh, it’s nothing I can’t handle.” Wrong. It’s so bad, it actually questions your decision to enroll into this school. If that isn’t a red mark, I don’t know what is.</p>

<p>So why is it bad? Allow me please…</p>

<p>The food- 5/10
Yes, there are varieties, but that becomes irrelevant when everything tastes like ****. There are 5 stations at Val, our cafeteria: Grill, traditional, pizza, lighter side, and salad bar. Grill and Traditional are the two main ones, and switch everyday. Grill has burgers, usually. Traditional has some sort of hot food usually. There are some good dishes (General Tsao :)), but most of the time, it’s nothing to look forward to. The pizzas can be good, but it’s super greesy and gross. Salad bar is pretty good, nothing to say about that. The lighter side is for the health conscious people (and people who don’t want to wait it lines). However, this is really bad. The brown rice is hard most of the time and inedible. The tofu is gross. The grilled chicken is literally a piece of rubber with grill marks taped on it. The vegetables are overcooked and the pasta is undercooked.</p>

<p>Service- 1/10
Nothing can redeem this part of Val. Management sucks and service is worse. There will be times when the workers will give you the most meager portion of food (ESPECIALLY when it’s a good day), and will not give you more even if you ask. Understand the meal plan is a buffet meal plan, i.e. take as much as you want. Why they won’t let us have more food is beyond me, considering, people can just come back again. The only thing they accomplish is ****ing us off by getting us to wait in line again. Speaking of which, the line is huge. If you have class till noon and get in during rush hour, you’re screwed. Have fun waiting in line for 20 minutes to get one dish. And even then, you won’t get much because they want to give everyone something, so you end up coming back again and waiting in line again. Lunch times are the worst, the lines are out of the entrance door to the cafeteria. You start waiting before you even enter the cafeteria. Val was meant to hold 1200, but admissions decided it’d be good to admit 1600. So now the cafeteria is over its capacity by like 33%. </p>

<p>Often, they will run out of drinking cups, and none of the workers bother to refill the stack. Same for utensils. In fact, the worst is trying to cut something with the unserated knifes. These said knifes are just pieces of metal. You can’t actually cut with them. They’re just there to look like knifes, but without the function. Sometimes, they decide to stack biodegradable utensils instead of metal ones, which isn’t a problem, until you realize they place them by the entrance and not the exit (where the regular utensils would’ve been kept), and have to walk back all the way. The stir fry is closed most of the time because the workers are either too lazy to operate it or don’t have the time to do so. The waffle machine and panini makers are a bit too old, especially the panini (the right one always burns your sandwiches).</p>

<p>The workers are overpaid. Sorry, but it’s true. $10/hours for doing such menial tasks is absurd. Our money is not going towards better service or food, but paying people wages above the market price. Had they used that money to buy better equipment or food, val would be a lot of a better place, but no, the workers are more important than the students I guess, even though we pay them.</p>

<p>Another stupid thing is schwems. This is the only other place to get food on campus other than Val. But it’'s schedule is the same as Val. Why??? You’d think people would go to Schwems when they can’t go to Val, so they would still be able to get food when they have conflicting schedule. But no, it’s opening times matches Val, so if you thought about going to Schwems, you can just save some money and go to Val instead. The stupidity of such logic is astounding. I really don’t know why management hasn’t been fired yet.</p>

<p>Overall- 2/10
You’d think the average would be a bit higher, but no. Holistically, it sucks. And I have to go to class, so I’ll leave it at that.</p>

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<p>NippleBerry, you have three posts in total here on CC. One when you got accepted to Amherst, now 2 years later negative posts back to back today. Snow getting to you? ;)</p>

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<p>You lost me at $10/hr being “overpaid” and your disparagement of the work as “menial”. What about the person who comes in and cleans your toilet for you? Also overpaid and menial? The food isn’t good. True. Your attitude toward those menials that prepare it for you is even worse. Have you ever considered the people who work in Val may have developed their own negative attitudes about the students who are living such privileged lives that bad cafeteria food is the big problem of their day?</p>

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<p>I am an Amherst College sophomore. I have to agree with NP. The food is below average at best. I can understand a parent not fully understanding how bad the food really is around here. You need only spend a few days, weeks and months at val to truly understand how subpar the food can be. </p>

<p>As for the help. I’m sure they do their best. Dealing with students on an everyday basis can get to them after awhile, too. I think it tends to be a vicious cycle. The food is bad…which makes the students unhappy…which impacts the workers at val…which affects the students.</p>

<p>I agree that more has to be done. I can understand keeping our mouths shut if the college was providing us with a free or even low cost meal. But the prices we (our parents) are paying for bad food is shameful. Look at it this way, if you were at a restaurant and ordered a nice meal and the food came to your table and looked bad and taste even worse…would you say something or simply pay the bill and keep your mouth closed? </p>

<p>Everyone in my dorm gets so hungry at about 10 or 11 at night that we have to order out for food. This gets to be very expensive, too. It is just a very bad situation that is not getting any better. If you want to “feed the brain” you have to begin with good nutritional food and a restful, good night sleep. Geting to bed at a reasonable time in college is not a viable option. Writing papers and studying for tests and reading assignments make it mandatory that we stay awake longer than we should. Food is one means to keep us going when everything else around us is shaky and unpredictable at best. </p>

<p>I realize parents read these threads and think that we are just a group of “spoiled” kids who complain about things that we should be greatful for. Unless you are here day in and day out and are part of the Amherst College student community and culture, you will never fully understand how bad the food can be and how important it is to have a good meal to enjoy from time to time.</p>

<p>Thanks for letting me share my thoughts!</p>

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<p>To GA2012MOM.
Yes, the snow here is pretty bad right now.</p>

<p>To rentof2:
I definitely feel like the workers are being overpaid. I don’t mean that in that their service is unimportant. I’m saying it’s an inefficient use of resources. I can guarantee you that you can find people who will be willing to work the same jobs for less. That’s not saying their job is unimportant, otherwise we wouldn’t have any food at all. But that’s not what I’m talking about. The question is whether or not you can get the same service for less resource (opportunity costs). My attitude is that workers’ compensations is a huge waste of resource. Yes, waste, as defined as extra costs that could be saved and going into different things.</p>

<p><strong>I assume you go to Amherst if you’re agreeing with me on the food. So think about the whole “Equal Employment Award”. Have you considered the real meaning behind that? I won’t spell it out here, but don’t you think there should be a much higher turnover rate in an unskilled service? (I don’t mean unskilled in a derogatory sense, just the economic definition of it).</strong></p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong. Amherst is still a great school, and has more than enough reasons to attract students. But people (including I) often did not get the whole picture of the school when they enrolled, Val being the main one. This is directed towards people who are deciding whether or not they want to come, and I want to give them an insider’s opinion. That’s all. </p>

<p>Why do you think tour guides don’t bring you into Val? They are not allowed to. Seriously, I have friends who are tour guides- you are actually not allowed to bring tour groups into Val.</p>

<p>And I want to justify my dislike for Val a bit more. I understand that Val is not the worst cafeteria or even close to that. It may even be good by some standards. But that would all be excusable if the school was doing its best. The problem is that it’s not. The school could make the cafeteria better if it wanted to. But they purposefully choose not to. How do I know? My friend actually talked to our president about this (and since he’s leaving I won’t hold back now). Mr. Marx said that the school purposefully chooses to make Val bad because if it didn’t, our school would be perfect (which I agree). What I don’t agree with is the logic behind that. What’s wrong with perfection? Apparently, perfection would “spoil” the students and breed arrogance. Maybe you agree with that. I don’t. </p>

<p>And that sums up my whole point: inefficiency. The school COULD be doing a much better job, but they don’t, either because they are too stupid to do so (yes, stupid, I wish there is a more generous word, but there really isn’t), or they purposely choose not to. I tend to give my best effort in everything I do. If anything, I would never sabotage my performance. I would really like to hear someone’s else’s opinion on this.</p>

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<p>For good food, go to Cornell (the best college culinary experience, in large measure due to the hotel school). In terms of NE SLAC’s, my sense is that the food rankings would be Swarthmore>Willliams> Amherst, but none are uniformally delectable/wholesome.</p>

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<p>My daughter is a tour guide at Amherst, and the reason for not bringing tours into Val is strictly a crowd issue, a point you brought up in your OP. </p>

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<p>I don’t think it would be possible for anybody to get the whole picture of ANY school prior to attending.</p>

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<p>So him trying to help people get the whole picture is a bad thing?</p>

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<p>I have no problem with NippleBerry stating his opinion on the quality of the food at Amherst, however I do find it odd that he states the following.</p>

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<p>The OP was a recruited athlete, so I am assuming (sorry if I’m wrong) he visited campus and ate multiple meals in the dining hall before deciding on Amherst.</p>

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<p>Although I suspect there’s something else going on in the OP’s life that is driving his ire, it does seem like Val comes up whenever Amherst is discussed, without any real satisfactory explanation other than “well, that’s just the way things are.”</p>

<p>I participated in a conference call last September with the dean of new students, and when she was asked about problems at Val she replied somewhat breezily, “well, I don’t eat there, but I know the people who work there and they’re all really nice so I’m sure they’ll respond to whatever concerns you have.”</p>

<p>I don’t particularly have a problem with bland food or having to wait in line for seconds, but I do get quite annoyed when I hear my son complain about the hours for dinner, namely, 4:30 to 7:30. I understand that most New Englanders are in bed by 8:00 pm, but 7:30 seems a little ridiculous for a college campus. </p>

<p>It is especially a problem because, as I understand it, most athletic practices get out around 7:00, so you have a mad rush to Val to get there by closing, and a huge wait as a result. It seems like such an easy problem to fix. Open at 5 and close at 8. I didn’t score high enough on SAT’s to even order the Amherst catalog, but, what am I missing?</p>

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<p>Thanks for my laugh of the day! </p>

<p>I have often wondered about Val’s early closing as well. My D’s sport is off campus and the team is always rushing to get back on time.</p>

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<p>I visited last October, and the food was definitely terrible. It’s even worse than the local state school that I take classes at, which has a reputation for bad food. It was also unappealing how the cafeteria was packed for dinner so badly that there was a line almost out of the door. I don’t understand how a school that makes people pay so much has such bad food. I still applied though.</p>

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<p>Bowdoin and Middlebury are widely regarded as having some of the best college food in the nation. But I guess they’re not elite enough for inclusion on your list?</p>

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<p>Ok, wow, this is ridiculous</p>

<p>Let me preemptively state that Val has never, and will never win gourmand awards by any comparison (including prisons and military chow halls [yes i was in the Army, no not prison])</p>

<p>Anyways, if you think Val food is unbearable you do not know what bad food is. I cannot overstate this fact.</p>

<p>It is very average (5/10) service is very average during peak times (12 and 730ish) but 20 minutes is a boldfaced lie NippleBerry. And they don’t kick you out at 730, I row crew and we get there (usually with the gate slammed in our face) around 730. Val also allows you to take a sandwhich/fruit/bagel/brownie out too if you want a late night snack. Buy some tupperware.</p>

<p>yeah 10/hr is high comparatively…but could you imagine working at Val for less? Working at Val would have been my last option this semester (THANK GOD I FOUND SOMETHING ELSE). Oh and that’s work-study by the way, aka, already part of your fin-aid package.</p>

<p>Val hires mentally disabled Americans (actual ones, seriously). This is awesome, Val composts everything, this is awesome, Amherst College doesnt spend all of its endowment on lobster, this is awesome.</p>

<p>If you hate Val so much you can eat somewhere else, literally. Take a five-college class and you can eat at that college on your meal plan for free. Umass has sushi every night, thats right…sushi.</p>

<p>Mediocre food builds comradery, it keeps us together dude! See you at Val</p>

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<p>Okay, listen. Val’s issue lately has been a gradual accumulation of a few small changes and a lack of consistency due to the weather’s inhibitory effects on staff and delivery truck transportation. It’s been obnoxious, I fully agree with you. However, I’m assuming you wouldn’t have taken the time to type out that melodramatic rant a year ago when things were running a bit more smoothly. Yes, the food is average. Yes, they need to fix the setup so lunch lines aren’t out the door. But if you want to be a useful member of this campus, why don’t you write a few comment cards and set up a meeting to discuss your issues with the dining director? I’m going to venture to guess that he’s not perusing CC to get student input. Things like World Cuisine, Val Extras, and the waffle makers have come to be DIRECTLY via student requests. But as other posters have said, if the food is the worst thing we’ve got going for us, I think it’ll be okay.</p>

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<p>I shall direct you to the lovely ladies and the fine gentlemen who sit on our Dining Services Committee. It’s high time we made them work for their seats.</p>

<p>In all due seriousness, Val is not that bad, provided that one does not suffer from self-imposed dietary restrictions of the religious and philosophical kind. That one will suffer indeed. For the rest of us, Val provides fairly healthy and fairly balanced meals. It serves its purpose, I mean to say. </p>

<p>Unacceptable, though, are the long lines that have been forming at every meal. If I were one of our better students, the sort that participate in sports or orchestra, and challenge themselves academically to the utmost, I’m sure I, or my stomach, would be groaning in despair every day. One can blame the Office of Admission for all this chaos and waste, though. The practical consequences of overenrollment.</p>

<p>With all said and done, Brick will attest to the fact that one goes to Val for the good company. ;)</p>

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<p>Nippleberry, when you talk about opportunity costs and job turnover you can avoid talking about real people who are trying to live and maintain their families on $10/hr in a terrible economy. Try doing that sometime. You’ll be in for quite a shock.</p>

<p>By the way, if it’s any consolation I was talking to a student at Carleton. He says Carleton is perfect in every way except the food is so lousy the students are frequently sick on it. Carleton uses Bon Appetit – which I hear other students frequently bring up as an alternative to Amherst’s in-house food service.</p>

<p>…And, I think you can assume Tony Marx’s tongue was firmly in cheek when he made that remark about the food at Val. The point is a good one, though. It may cost as much as a country club, but it isn’t a country club.</p>

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<p>And that justifies paying exorbitant amounts for poor food and poor service?</p>

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<p>As a sophomore at Amherst, I’d like to say that by no means does every student here act like a self-entitled brat, which is how the OP comes across to me. Is the food at Val the best I’ve ever tasted? Nope. Is it the worst? Far from it.</p>

<p>The food may not be the nicest, but there’s a great variety of food and it’s always possible to find/make a good meal. Yeah, the lines are long, but if that’s the worst part of your day at Amherst, maybe you should stop complaining. And the way you talk about the service makes me wonder if you’ve ever actually talked to the workers at Val. They’re some of the nicest people on campus, and every single one of them has gone out of their way for anything I’ve ever asked about.</p>

<p>So please, stop whining. The food is fine, and the benefits elsewhere on campus more than make up for the lack of five star cuisine. If you’d rather go to a school that spends money on dining services rather than academics, please do. I’d feel much better about being enrolled here if there weren’t such condescending jackasses like yourself.</p>

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<p>No, Manarius, not a justification at all. The point is that if you’re looking for a country club, join one. If you want to experience college --with all the peculiarities, strengths, weaknesses that any specific college will inevitably have-- then go to college. If you want to be involved with improving food services at Amherst, as others have said, get involved!</p>