The Food at Lawrence

SimpleLife
Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:29:55 +0000

My son is still narrowing down his college choices. Lawrence is definitely towards the top - except for one thing … the food.

I know. It’s silly. He loves the school. Loves the conservatory. Hates the food.

We visited the campus twice. The first time was in the summer. We had lunch on campus and were baffled at how it could be so bad! We were laughing at how absurdly horrible the menu items were - such a strange and unlikely combination of foods. Vegetables were in particular short supply.

We were told that, in the summer, the food in the dining hall was mostly for the athletes that stick around for summer programs of some sort.

So, when we came back during the school year, we were anxious to try the food again. We intentionally ate every meal on campus for two days. We were at the same time disappointed and busting a gut trying not to laugh about how it could possibly be so bad! It is true that the salad bar was much fresher with a lot more variety during the school-year visit. And there were perhaps a few more items in the hot line that had some nuance of nutritional value. And there were many tasty desserts available. But, overall, compared to every single other school we visited (and there were MANY), the food was still laughably bad! And nobody else seemed to know it! We were mystified.

My son’s chief complaints - poor nutrition (very few vegetables; all meats were fried and/or processed; high sodium and fat content in most foods); only two food lines: hot line and sandwich line; just about everything was overcooked; boring, boring, boring selection - very limited choices; things just didn’t taste good!

We are not picky eaters AT ALL. On the contrary, we like foods from every category you can imagine. However, I suppose that when it comes to nutrition and freshness, we could be considered picky.

I know there was a time when all college food was notoriously awful. But from what we’ve seen, those days are gone. We probably visited just shy of 20 colleges. Not a one had awful food - other than Lawrence. Some (many) had some pretty amazing food - with a great selection that varied from day to day and many nutritious things to choose from.

I know that Lawrence is a small campus. They can’t support a ton of variety on the lunch line. I also know that they’re getting a new student center and dining hall and trying to choose a new vendor now. But I also know that when we politely brought up the horrible food, people there didn’t seem to take it seriously - as though they didn’t know just how bad it was. “That’s college life!” they said. So is there reason to believe it’s going to improve with the new student center and new vendor?

Seriously, as silly as it may seem to some of you, the food at Lawrence just may turn out to be a deal breaker for this otherwise very impressive little college! I can hardly believe it when my son talks this way about it, but on the other hand, it is what he’s going to be feeding his body 3 times a day, 300 days a year, for 4 or 5 years! And he really cares about his health (and so do I), and he honestly FEELS bad when he’s not eating healthy food.

Otherwise, it’s a dream school in every way!

Comments? Suggestions? Anybody else notice this about Lawrence?