Response to Heather's Response of Lani's "Hartford Food System"

            After reading Lani’s post and Heather’s response I felt like playing devil’s advocate, so here I go. Both posts are absolutely right: the food system and meal plans for campus are horrible. The majority of options are only available during limited hours of the day, most options are unhealthy, and the price is outrageous. This is just a small taste of the real world.

            Many people here live on campus because they have to; commuting from California or Alaska every day of the week is out of the question. For some of the people here, not much has changed, but for many everything is different. Most of us were accustomed to being able to go downstairs and check the fridge; the food would just magically be there for us. Now we have to actively work to go out and get the food we need. We can go shopping at Konover or stores off campus, “go out” to Commons, Hawk’s Nest, Gengras, or Konover for ready made food, or order food for delivery. Those are the three main options we will have when living on our own later in life. Similar to being here, ordering in can be expensive on your own. Going out to restaurants is less healthy just like how eating meals made for you at Commons, Gengras, Hawk’s Nest, or Konover can be unhealthy. Of course there’s always the cheap yet unwholesome choice of fast food, which exists on and off campus as a terrible temptation. Finally going shopping for food to make takes more time and work but can be cheaper and healthier, just like it will be when we get sent out into true adulthood. Looking at our options here I can see an overwhelming resemblance to what we will have to face as adults living on our own in need of nutrition. The only real difference is that food will be even harder to get because we will have to spend even more money for a four month period and all the places to eat will not be clustered together within a ten minute walk from our homes.

            Living on campus is supposed to help people learn how to be fairly independent by taking it in small steps. We do our laundry, clean our rooms, manage our time, and adjust to a new way of getting food all on our own. College is a big step for a reason; we are supposed to become more independent here as a result of living away from our families. Part of growing up involves adapting to the environment of an adult, which is usually, hopefully, an apartment or home of some kind (they do not come with a bottomless refrigerator and cabinet). The majority of options here are unhealthy and it is incredibly hard to stay healthy and not get broke while eating the food here, but it is just as hard to do the same when living off of campus. Our food system at the University is an appropriate way to ease people into what lies ahead for us when we leave the school and live on our own.

            Heather says, “Having healthy options, that can be accessed as many times as our meal plan allows for, should be what is most important. Not ripping us poor college students off with the time slots of the meal plans, and, leaving us with no choices but unhealthy if we happen to miss Commons hours.” I laughed when reading this, because it presumes the school should have our best interest at heart the way our previous schools were supposed to do so. Public high, middle, and elementary schools are funded by the government and paid to have our best interest at heart, the University of Hartford is paid by us to give us a degree. That is all. The school is not paid to care; it is a business and businesses only care about making more money. Sadly, that is the case for every single place we will be getting food from when we enter the adult life; Walmart does not care if you are poor, McDonald’s isn’t going to change it’s menu because you want cheap healthy food, and Commons won’t extend it’s hours because you want a salad at midnight. You say “college is hard”, well life is hard and college is supposed to prepare us for life, therefore I’d say our school is doing a good job at preparing us for what comes next and I for one appreciate it because I’d rather be ready for adulthood rather than be babied for four more years.