Johnson & Wales A Culinary School With Bad Food Services
Another University that doesn’t prioritize the health of it’s students.
I wake up before the sun comes up every day. I get showered and ready to go, I put my uniform on and rush to eat breakfast in my dorm knowing that most of the dining halls aren’t open yet. As I have a long day ahead of me, I try to appreciate that I have a kitchen on campus when many don’t. I leave for class and on my way, I see students guzzling red bulls, java monsters and rock stars as they eat small sugary snacks like Twinkies, gushers, and other candies as they rush to class. It hits me then that I don’t look at these sights without concern or surprise. That going to college has normalized this for me and that this was a problem. A problem that all colleges must work toward solving.
“It is extremely important for students to eat before labs, it is imperative, it is as important as coming to labs itself” (A JWU Baking & Pastry Arts Chef). This is the common theme of what I have heard from teachers when asking then about student’s diets on campus. Making the problems in campus dining at JWU in particular even more of a predicament. I have conducted interviews with students, staff and administration, and all but one staff member believe that campus dining needs to take steps to offer healthier meal options, campus dining hall hours must be adjusted to work better for students, and students should be offered the opportunity to learn how to eat well & be healthy while balancing college life. So why is it that campus dining doesn’t appear to prioritize these things when having access to healthy regular, and properly timed meals is a major issue at JWU?
To start, one must address the direct issue of the food that is offered at campus and how it is currently being offered on campus. The food on campus from dining services have never been loved. The portions aren’t consistent or correct. The variety is limited, the level of nutrition is questionable, and the taste has never been amazing. With the new limited hours two locations on campus are open at 6 am, meaning that all AM lab students that need to eat breakfast on campus would need to crowd into two dining locations, order, receive, and eat their meals in 30–45 minutes assuming they get there as soon as they open and that their teacher don’t want them their early. Which we all know doesn’t happen and the hours changing constantly isn’t helping students. Not one of the students I talked to knew that both Harborside Café and the Harborside Starbucks had moved their opening time to 6 AM. Out of the six students I spoke to not one knew that Harborside Café offered breakfast let alone what they offered, just that they have grab-and go meals.
The next step for improvement at JWU is to offer the opportunity to learn how to eat well & be healthy while balancing college life. Students need to see how to care for themselves with eating well as one of the most important aspects. Approximately 40 percent of incoming college freshmen already have some sort of struggle with disordered eating and when looking at only females entering college, that number goes up to 80 percent. This staggering statistic is from 2018 with the trends from 2005–2018 showing that number constantly growing it is very likely that number has only grown in the past three years. With this information and the unhealthy eating habits of student on campus JWU must begin to provide guidance to incoming students to end this cycle of eating disorders and over-all unwellness on our campus.
This could only come to fruition of course if everyone agrees these are problems which sadly isn’t true. The opposing view I heard came from exactly one person. When talking about hours this staff member stated, “The hours are fine students need to stop complaining and rise earlier”. To this I say the two dining locations open before labs is not enough especially when students don’t have an option Downcity. When asked about the health of the offered foods they said, “The school offers healthy foods, y’all just don’t care to eat it”. To this I must simply reply with the fact that the “healthy” options on campus are limited and if students didn’t want to eat healthy foods, they wouldn’t be complaining.
The same could be said about students breaks. When asked about students having breaks during labs, they replied, “Students aren’t in labs long enough to have a break.” To which I say that students are in labs for 6+ hours, a shift most states require a 30 min break for. As for talking about offering health education at JWU they said, “No- you all are adults you need to figure this out on your own”. I respond to this with the fact that not all students are 18 when they enroll, and regardless adults can need help too. As if we didn’t students wouldn’t have a daily diet of “A box of Mike and Ike’s, a frozen pizza and two Red Bulls”.
In conclusion, for the students at JWU to function, as healthy students, dining services must adjust their hours to actually work for the students going to labs and offer healthier and inclusive meal options. They should provide students with a resource to learn about being healthy on campus. Which for a culinary school one would think should never have been problems to begin with, wouldn’t you think? As with students being put in such an unhealthy relationship with food, the very thing many came here because they loved, how would you not expect so many to become unhappy. Without this basic health need being met students will struggle in class and out of class. So, I ask, how can JWU so easily accept that they may cause students to not grow and to not reach their full potential at this institution?
