My first will be going away to college in the Fall, and wondering what he can expect.
Now that yours are returning from school, did their dietary habits change during Freshman year?
Did they develop a taste for a cuisine not typically served in your household? Or befriend a vegetarian that exposed them to lots of unique meatless dishes?
In my day, it was the Freshman 15, usually from pizza and burgers. But colleges seem to offer so much more these days.
It depends on the type of dining plan.
My son went to a school where you were charged (against the money already deposited in your account) for the actual items you chose in the dining hall. This system had some advantages (you were allowed to get food to go), but it didn’t encourage trying new things.
My daughter went to a school with all-you-care-to-eat dining halls. With this system, you can try something new, and if you don’t like it, you can get rid of it and try something else – at no extra charge. But taking food out of the dining hall is forbidden, and you feel pressured to stuff yourself at meals so you won’t have to spend cash on snacks elsewhere during the day.
Neither of them learned about new cuisines in the way you suggest. But a generation earlier, I learned to keep kosher from one of my roommates, who was very observant. I’m not Jewish, but I had to learn the rules because we had shared food in our fridge. I actually know more about the dietary laws than my husband does, and he is Jewish (though not at all observant).
My daughter came home loving more ethnic inspired cuisine and also a dress size smaller from using the rec center and walking so much 
Ooh, gosh, this is so individual. For most kids, they make do just fine. My wife is and exceptional cook, we buy really good and fresh ingredients, and our kids struggled with much of the dorm food. All three spent a lot of time at the salad bar and the sandwich station.
On the plus side, they had no issues at all with weight gain. That might have more to do with beer and late-night pizza anyway.
@Marian , great observation about an advantage of all-you-can-eat. Funny story about the kosher! ?
@momofsenior1 , great story about your daughter. I was much older when I started trying ethnic dishes, and wish I would have been exposed more in college… Probably should have hit the rec center more often, also. ?
@Magnetron , we are somewhere in between, buying really good and fresh ingredients, but not knowing how to cook / assemble them! ? I’ll be curious to see if my son’s experience is anything like your kids’.
When our S returned from freshman year he had LOST 3 lbs! Needless to say he’s not a fan of the food at his school. Might be partially my fault as I love to cook at home.
I’m hoping my kid will gain an appreciation at college for how good she had it at home! Then again, she really likes pizza and cheap burgers, so institutional cooking might hit the spot.
While the food at all three of my kids was decent, they were all happy to lose the cafeteria when they could. The choices often seem great and plentiful at first, but like even our menus at home, they start repeating and what is there gets a little old.
I think as a parent it is nice if you let them know you support them getting some food options to keep in the room too. By having some snacks or beverages in their room(hopefully some of them are healthy!) they will not feel they need to stuff themselves until the next meal - which just isn’t a good ideal!
I think at least two out of three of mine who are all daily breakfast eaters dumped breakfast in the cafeteria pretty fast. They would rather have a few extra minutes of sleep or time in the room getting ready and just learned to keep cereal, toast, fruit - even eggs to scramble in the microwave on hand - they still add breakfast but in their rooms.
I think a lot of schools are ok if the students take out an item - banana, bagel - that kind of thing - those can also be used for a later snack or breakfast in the morning.
(I remember when I was in school we were allowed to take a beverage out of the cafeteria…so we just learned to stuff whatever food item we wanted - from pudding or ice cream to a scoop or two of peanut butter to have later - we just put it in a pop/soda cup!!)
D’s school allows take out and has reusable “to go” boxes.
The one thing that D misses is fresh berries. Bananas, Apples, and Oranges got old. Whenever we visited, we brought fresh berries and pineapple ; )
At my daughter’s school, the freshman meal plan has been a complete rip-off. It was super expensive and not used very much, at least in our case.
Freshmen are required to get the full meal plan if they live on campus. What they don’t publicize much is that on the weekends most of the dining halls are closed. The one that is open has limited hours. And the one that is “healthy” and “better” also has limited hours, even during the week. Like others said, after a while mine lived at the salad and wrap stations.
In terms of trying new things, she did give it a go at the dining hall. But what made my daughter try new things is going out with friends. The girl who hates fish will now eat sushi lol.
The son with a meal plan needed an emergency shipment of hot sauce to survive bland freshman year food.