Food at Denison?

[BananaramaDad]

OK, this is a silly post, but I have to ask…

I attended Admitted Student Day with my son, who’s already paid his deposit as a proud member of the class of 2023. I think he’ll have a great experience at Denison.

However, I’m curious…why does Denison’s food get a C- grade on ■■■■■■■■■? And when we took a campus tour, our tour guide sort of passed on the question about the food. There seems to be some

We ate at Huffman Dining Hall, and the food, in my opinion, was pretty amazing. There were several entree options, veggie, vegan, a huge salad bar (with grilled tofu), heck there were eight different flavors of ice cream! I went to a small liberal-arts college in the 1980s, and didn’t have nearly the variety or quality of food that Huffman offers. What’s the problem with Denison’s food? Was the food special that day because of Admitted Student Day? It doesn’t really matter, since my son’s going anyway, but I want to know!

[Midwestmomofboys]

From my kid, it doesn’t sound like there’s anything “wrong” with it – I suspect kids just get bored after a while – mine tends to eat the same thing all the time so certainly would get boring! The dining service does a good job of using locally sourced products, and there is a strong farm-to-table movement in the area with a lot of organic available, so my sense is the quality is actually quite good. I saw that Curtis West chef was working with international students to prepare some of their favorite dishes from home and I’ve heard often that if you ask dining hall to stock, or use, something special that you miss from home, they will go to every effort to do so.

Congrats on your son’s decision, it is a wonderful school!

[mom2jnk]

I think that is probably an accurate rating. Denison was one of DD’s top two choices, so we were on campus for a regular visit, an audition visit, and an accepted students overnight. Compared to the other colleges we visited, the number of entree selections at a meal at Denison were much fewer, more basic carbohydrate focused (lots of white food), and less flavorful. They did have a good salad bar though. Desserts seemed to be all institutional food service offerings, really bland. We did find that the food at every campus we visited was “elevated” on official large junior visit days over a typical day (she had a music audition on a regular, non-admission centric day), so you may not want to put too much stock in what you experienced on an accepted students day.

[BananaramaDad]

Thanks for the responses. I’m a single dad and a lousy cook, so my son would probably be better off with any food service other than me. I’m not familiar with the food options at other small colleges, so perhaps I shouldn’t say anything – but nevertheless, I fear my son will become far less tolerant of my limited culinary skills after living at Denison for a semester!

[tkoparent]

@BananaramaDad Definitely not a silly post! My son will also be a member of Denison’s Class of 2023 - just pushed the button yesterday - and this question has been on my mind as well, as I’ve also seen the negative rankings for food. We did not eat in the dining hall when we visited Denison last month, although we did walk through on our tour. The dining hall was so beautiful, I guess I’ve been thinking that the view might overcome any problems with the food. On the other hand, we visited another school on the same trip for an admitted students day, and although that school seems to be renowned for its food, it was pretty “meh.” Probably in the end, dining hall food is dining hall food. Our Denison guide did point out that the dining hall staff is very open to suggestions from the students.

[pn24601]

When I was in college, we were always excited when there were lots of important visitors on campus because we’d get better food that day. (Not at Dension, but the practice doesn’t surprise me at all.)

[frutsun]

My daughter says the food grade would be a B minus EXCEPT for Slayter (the student union) where it receives an A minus.

[BananaramaDad]

I went to June-O with my son, and ate in the Curtis Dining Hall for lunch, dinner, and breakfast. I guess I’m comparing the food to what I remember eating in college - Denison’s food seemed pretty good to me. If Denison’s food is a C-, what the heck would A+ food be?

[tkoparent]

Very reassuring @BananaramaDad!