I graduated in 1980 from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor degree in Human Nutrition. In 1983 I received a Master's degree in Nutrition Education, and in 2010 I received another Master's degree in Judaic Studies, so its safe to say I love going to school. Today, I am sitting in the main library at Ohio University while my oldest child, a Master's in Health Policy degree professional herself, interviews for medical school. As I am waiting for my daughter and it's lunchtime, I head over to the cafe in the library. I am struck by how different food choices are today for college students, and what is available to them, than it was in my day. I am sure we had vending machines, but I don't remember food being so available. I know that I signed up for the meal plan, but if I wanted food I had to walk to my assigned cafeteria and not have a card that allowed me to eat wherever. I also know that the food was homemade right in the kitchens on campus that day and not by a food service corporation and trucked onto campus. Today, I went to a local chain drugstore looking for a diet soda and discovered that the 20 oz variety costs $1.89, but if I wanted a 1 Liter it was $1.10 and if I purchased a 2 Liter it was $.99. What a scam!
In the cafe by the library they do not sell soft drinks. Only coffee and teas for hot beverages and for cold beverages only bottled teas and lemonade. If you want a Red Bull or Monster drink loaded with sugar and caffeine, well, there are plenty of those. What happened to choice in an institutional setting? It seems that universities and Big Food have made a partnership. While new students are distracted by learning and developing a social life, colleges have been signing food contracts with food corporations or third party food service organizations. Its a win for them all. The universities receive lots of income and Big Food or third party groups use Millennials to introduce new brand items for future customers. The irony is that all the pressure parents and school districts put on food manufacturers to provide healthy food during the elementary, middle school and high school years is all forgotten once students leave the nest to attend college. There is fresh money and no parental interference in food choices. There is also no mandatory nutrition course to explain to students drinking Red Bull a few times a day may not be healthy for you at 27 grams of sugar for one 8.4 oz can. Nor is there anyone to explain that you might feel better eating a healthy diet, getting some exercise everyday and making sure you get a good nights sleep.
This is not to say that there is no healthy food served at the cafe at the library. I just finished a "Which Came First Salad" which I finally figured out means that it is a salad with a sliced hard boiled egg and cut up chicken nuggets and cheese. Get it? I didn't when I ordered it but I do now. It was fine, though I had to pull out many lettuce pieces because they were spoiled. It was expensive for just a salad, but if I were a student, I would be using my meal credit card and not paying attention to cost. A few years ago another daughter of mine realized that at her university she would never eat in food the amount of money she was paying for her meal card, and so she would go to the cafeteria/food store and buy up all the non-perishable items and bring them home at the end of every semester. She realized before I did what over payment she was making every semester during her undergraduate years and by buying out the food it was her way of fighting back. It was very clever.
The problem of course is there is no refund or "carrying over" accounting for meal plans at colleges and universities. That would defeat the purpose of schools overcharging students for food in the first place. In an article entitled "A Lesson in College Foodservice", fast casual service is what the Millennials are looking for on college campuses, leaving traditional fast food brands from the past, out of favor. Slowly, the farm to table movement will be incorporated into institutional food life at college campuses, as long as Big Food and national third party vendors like Aramark and Sodexo can figure out how to monetize it. But in the mean time, everyone involved in this industry realizes the long-term profitability of engaging this demographic into a favorite brand. Once they are hooked on a brand it becomes part of their memory and looked upon fondly. That is until one day they go to the doctor and realize their blood sugar is too high. Oh well, that is another post.
