The truth about Amherst food. MUST READ

Colleges and Universities A-Z Amherst College
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<p>I’m with yos. If you’re not an incredibly finicky and picky eater, there’s more than enough. And I also have never heard once of people getting sick from Val. While it may be true for lyle, I would say claiming it to be a “running joke around campus” is clearly not true.</p>

<p>To answer the people asking why we haven’t improved Val, it’s because there are better things to spend money on, like Financial Aid for lower income or international students, which is a much better use than improving a dining hall that really isn’t bad. And if Val is your reason for choosing a different college, I’m very glad you did.</p>

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<p>If the previous poster was referring to me, Val was far from the top reason I chose not to go to Amherst. Moreover, you do not have to spend more money, necessarily, to improve a dining hall.</p>

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<p>Some people need to really read my posts carefully because they are misinterpreting what I’m saying.</p>

<p>1) No, there is nothing dramatic going on in my life that made me post this. I held my tongue last year for two reasons. One is that as bad as I feel Val is, it takes time to get to you. After an entire year-and-a-half of it now, it’s getting to me just a little bit. And second, Val was not nearly as crowded last year as it is now. The current freshmen class is the biggest in Amherst history, with the sophomore class right after them. Which means: the capacity has been strained heavily recently. This year has been particularly bad. The lines are out the door on rush-hours. Whoever said you never have to wait 20 minutes to get your food obviously has not experienced this.</p>

<p>2) I don’t hate, or even dislike, the majority of the Val workers. Ironically, I have worked in Val. The people are nice. But being nice does not excuse empty cup cartons and spoiled milk.</p>

<p>3) For those who think I’m acting extremely spoiled. Fine. Whatever. I differ but won’t bother to defend myself; you are entitled to your own opinion. However, I will make the point that the average person who comes to Amherst College does not come from some army barrack or prison. I’m sure there is an outlier who was weaned on blood and ate tree bark throughout his childhood. This thread is not directed toward people like you. If you grew up in the projects and had sardines for dinner, Val will be your salvation. However, considering about 30% of the students come from private schools, 12% from other countries (on the contrary to what some think, international students usually come from very well off families rather than low income families- at least compared to their peers back home), and the majority of those public schooled are from middle/upper class suburbans, I think it’s safe to say that my opinions fall in line more with the average person at Amherst than someone who says we should be thankful we’re not kids in Africa. The argument “It can always be worst” doesn’t always apply because you can say that for just about anything save brutal torture or death. The point is that the food here is bad within any normal standard.</p>

<p>4) As I mentioned before, I’m an athlete. So if you missed that part, take that into account when you read my posts. I practice 4 hours a day (morning and afternoon), plus the logistics of being at practice, locker time, leaving the gym, etc. I spend a good 5-6 hours daily dedicated to my sport. And when 7pm hits and I NEED food in my stomach in order to survive, the lines at Val becomes a really big problem. If you are not an athlete and have flexible schedule, there are certainly ways around the rush hours (just come back another time). But some of us (I believe 20-30% of the population here are athletes) have very busy schedules, which adds to the difficulty.</p>

<p>5) You most likely will not get a good picture of Val just by visiting Amherst. As I mentioned, it takes time to get to you. Tour guides will not take you in. I was recruited as an athlete and the team refused to take me into Val, save breakfast (which isn’t as bad frankly). Most people will lie to your face about Val (they’re trying to get you to come after all). All I’m saying is to not be deceived because first impressions can be specious.</p>

<p>6) I understand that the workers are trying to make a living too and that paying them a bit more helps people who otherwise would have a much harder time. But I don’t believe that we should be giving out handouts. If we’re paying them more, they should do their part to earn it. Playing Farmville on the job (yes, I caught some lady playing Farmville) does not seem like an efficient use of time. Another example was when my friend inquired about pepperoni pizza, to which the pizza lady replied that there will be no more because she did not feel like making them, even though she was clearly not doing anything else. </p>

<p>And one more case and point, which is my favorite: This one day the vegan section consisted of tortellini with cheese, which isn’t actually vegan. When approached about this issue, the lady behind the bar said that the cheese itself isn’t vegan, but everything else is, so hence, the vegan tortellini with cheese. My vegan friend argued that that was nonsense, and the lady eventually conceded. Instead of telling the chef to take off the cheese, she simply took off the “Vegan” sign, so there was no longer a vegan section (not the kind of efficiency I was hoping for). My friend later went back for seconds and saw that the lady had put the sign back up after she had left.</p>

<p>Let’s be honest, I don’t expect a 5-star cuisine, but things like those make me a bit irritated.</p>

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<p>You might want to read your own posts again. </p>

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<p>Wow…</p>

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<p>Maybe you should blame your fellow swimmers for deceiving you during your recruitment.</p>

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<p>Quite the super sleuth! Note to self, call Facebook and have Farmville blocked from dining hall so OP can have pepperoni pizza.</p>

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<p>Just for the record, I don’t think it’s conceited to ask for nutritious, palatable food from the cafeteria that you’re forced to eat from three meals a day, especially considering what people pay for board at schools like this. Having to eat unhealthy, poorly prepared food day in and day out (especially when you’re trying to compete) can be one of the more frustrating experiences.</p>

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<p>@GA2012MOM</p>

<p>Is it really too much to ask for decent food and employees who don’t play games during their shifts? I’m happy for you if you like waiting long amounts of time for poor food and poor service, but maybe you could try adding to the discussion or making helpful suggestions next time, instead of just being sarcastic and rude.</p>

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<p>How are the vegetarian options at Val? I am a vegetarian and after hearing all this about Amherst’s food, I’m getting second thoughts. But I already applied and it’s really hard to get in so let’s see…</p>

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<p>As a vegetarian, I’m generally pretty happy with Val’s selection. There is always at least one hot vegetarian entree, along with plenty of “do-it-yourself” options like the sandwich press, stir fry, and salad bar mentioned before.</p>

<p>It’s worth noting that in the last week, Val has seriously improved the salad bar. While it used to be rather basic, it’s been incredibly expanded include many items that are high in protein.</p>

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I would just note that this is about the best any of the defenders of the food has said. While I am primarily looking for a college to educate my kid, I want them to feed her decently as well, especially if I’m paying substantial private-school fees for it.</p>

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<p>D did an overnight in Oct. First thing she said was the food was bad. Dorms were nice, though. She didn’t end up applying, but it wasn’t solely because of the food (she was told not to bother unless her scores were > 2100, which they weren’t). I’m glad she got the chance to find out what it was like. No matter how great the school, you can’t deny that weather and food are a component of your overall well being.</p>

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<p>We were told by our tour guide-a student-that the food was terrible and the lines too long-she ended up getting takeout a few times a week. This was not in our budget, and while not a major factor, we kept in mind thru the process.</p>

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<p>i never understood why food is so important - people always go on about food. A friend at Amherst tell me they cut out cereals during dinner and lunch as a “cost cutting” measure when the recession hit.</p>

<p>Bowdoin kids always talk about their food being ranked #1 and how important that is… now i feel like it is pretty important</p>

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<p>I think some of the responses from the parents on this thread are absolutely atrocious. GA2012MOM your posts are hardly constructive. 'rentof2’s hardly are either. There are enough ■■■■■■ and smart***es on CC you don’t need to exacerbate the issue. Your comments aren’t constructive when 1. they consist of sarcasm or write-off the complaint – usually the complaint comes up because it has already been written-off, 2. they deliberately misinterpret posts and 3. they don’t post viable solutions to the issue.</p>

<p>“Maybe you should blame your fellow swimmers for deceiving you during your recruitment.” – Your logic is faulty. I’m guessing that you didn’t go to Amherst. The swimmers did, however, take him there. Schools (admissions, students, tour guides,…) spin their flaws to get people to attend. Is spin a good thing? Nope. But it happens so don’t act like this is some egregious outlier and the swimmers deceived an unknowing spec by not having them try the school’s food. I hope you give your children better replies than this. Hopefully you at least give them advice that’s on topic and actually speaks to their problem.</p>

<p>“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?” – They’re getting paid to do their job. You’re just there trying to get your broccoli and they’re muttering rudely under their breath (the case at my LAC). Not every student acts like a jerk and warrants rude behavior. Workers get paid to do their job and they should maybe even take a little bit of pride in what they do. Also, you can’t assume that everyone there is some rich, privileged jerk. Kids are on financial aid, questbridge, scholarships. They’re working hard at Amherst and the school recruits some of the brightest, hard-working kids in the country. Don’t act like they’re all stupid teenagers complaining for the hell of it because they didn’t get their filet mignon cooked the way they wanted.</p>

<p>“I don’t think it would be possible for anybody to get the whole picture of ANY school prior to attending.” – Trying to justify paying 50k a year, are we? This isn’t College Censorship, this is College Confidential. You don’t have to write everything off. Someone’s trying to give their opinion on something at a school so that incoming students do get a better picture. As manarius pointed out. This is why I started reading CC as a student – because I wanted to get opinions from real students, not read sarcastic comments from rude parents who are writing off every complaint they see. Is every complaint warranted? No. Doesn’t mean that a problem isn’t there.</p>

<p>“Quite the super sleuth! Note to self, call Facebook and have Farmville blocked from dining hall so OP can have pepperoni pizza.” – So you think she should be getting paid to play Farmville? During mealtime they should probably be serving meals. What if your daughter couldn’t get her food in time before a class because a worker was playing on Facebook? She can play Farmville off the clock. I’m guessing you play a lot of Farmville on the job and are simply commiserating with this anonymous dining services worker.</p>

<p>This is more a comment on how these parents prefer to undermine issues and believe that they don’t exist. I hope you’re not this derogatory to your kids’ friends. If your daughter or son started complaining that someone is playing on Facebook instead of serving them some food, and then is gonna go play a sport for 2 hours on an empty stomach, what would you tell them? To go cook up something in her kitchen? To go spend their money that might earn from work-study or tour guiding (idk if guides at AC get paid) on food? Most students need that to pay for their tuition. Might as well save yourself money on the meal plan.</p>

<p>That being said, I don’t even go to Amherst. But the comments made by parents on this thread were so astounding to me that I had to reply. I do go to an LAC with food of varying, questionable quality – but nothing like this. Even if what the people arguing in FAVOR of Val are saying is true, I’m really glad I’m not eating there. Dining Services at my school, well, the people behind the scenes are awesome. The people who serve the food are 90% downright mean. I’ve been snapped at for no reason, had food taken away as I was about to grab some after a 2 hour practice, well within the dining hall’s office hours; it’s not fun. I didn’t spit on them, I didn’t curse at them, I didn’t complain about how my lasagna was cooked. Don’t act like rude people don’t exist and it’s all the students’ fault.</p>

<p>As a note on actually SOLVING the issue.</p>

<p>Saying that there are off-campus dining or “cheap” take-out options are the most inane suggestions one could possible make. If a student is being driven off-campus to get food then don’t you think that indicates that there’s problem? Second, I don’t know how much money you have to spend as a college student, or when you were a college student, but take-out is expensive and is not a viable option every night. Neither is going to eat off-campus. Sure, if you want to subsist and spend a lot of money, those options work – but in the end, when you’re rushing from class, to practice, to a club meeting, to a lecture, on a limited budget and you’re already paying for a meal plan, you just want to stop and get some food.</p>

<p>Dining Committee and learning to make the best of the options available were the best solutions actually presented in this 4-page thread. I think making the best out of a situation is something that’s really important to learn – if college students want to change the world they could probably endeavor to make some changes in terms of food services. (Note, I’m not disregarding whatever problem there might be – I’m saying that students should be proactive in fixing it. I didn’t tell them to eat somewhere else, cook for themselves, or try to contact Facebook to get a game blocked at their school.)</p>

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<p>wow… that was long.</p>

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<p>Thanks for stopping by Liminal. You said everything I would have liked to say, more constructively, of course.</p>

<p>I also want to add, those of us who are “complaining” about Val aren’t doing it to be spoil sports. We’re doing it because we’re trying to be honest, and maybe, just maybe, someone at Amherst is reading these comments, which might lead to better quality food and service.</p>

<p>Speaking of which, this is the week of Spring Break. Val is closed for the entire week, starting with this past Friday. That’s right, no food for the entire week. A select group of students are allowed to have food, but that group must be really small, as I have a friend in the <30,000 category, who was not offered this option. Amherst so graciously offered a list of places in town to eat on their website, however.</p>

<p>The salad bar has quite improved in the past week or so, so my regular lunch/dinner meal is lighter side chicken (when it is available) and salad. It would be great though if there were healthier, less aggravating foods available. (Another poster wrote me off when I said Val wasn’t good for the stomach, but that is the truth with some of the stuff they serve).</p>

<p>The world cuisine has been interesting, too. Although, nothing makes me more angry than paying this much for a school, that claims my meal plan is unlimited, and being told I can only be served two pancakes at a time. (For the record, I asked for three.) Or better yet, when Val serves Lobster Macaroni and Cheese, seeing the workers behind the counter pick out the lobster before any student can get any. </p>

<p>At the risk of sounding like a bitter Betty, I will stop. I do love Amherst, but I hate Val.</p>

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Any improvements in the past 4 years?

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My daughter has been there for almost a month, and says that the food has been surprisingly good. Apparently there was a shakeup in the kitchen staff a couple of years back.

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My D says it’s ok too. I liked the inclusion of local vegetables when I stopped by and the hummus was great.

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Can anyone compare the food at Amherst to the food at Bowdoin, Bates or Colby?

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@CHD2013 – One obvious difference is that you don’t have to be in Maine to eat it.