Food Deserts On College Campuses Essays Examples

Starting college has been a new experience for me in terms of meeting my basic needs and surviving on my own. A major factor involved here is access to food and how this affects my diet and ultimately my overall health and well being. As a transfer student, I actually began my college career at a different university, where I lived in the dormitories for a limited number of months. It was during this onboarding process that the struggle to attain healthy foodstuffs on a campus environment first became clear to me, particularly as I felt my weight increase and noticed inadvertendly that I had ramped up my daily calories intake by at least 30% (but somehow never felt quite full?) My first semester at real college involved the typical routine of on-campus living, dormitory residence, and a meal plan with the university's contracted catering service, which, like most universities in the United States I have come to learn, is through Aramark Dining Services (a company which also happens to provide food services to a large percentage of our nation's prisons as well). Living on-campus in a traditional setting invokes a degree of isolation from the outside world (especially if one does not have a car). There was no grocery store within 30 minutes of public transportation, the closest 7-11 store was a good 15 minute trek across a busy 4-lane road, but there were multiple campus “market stores”, a major dining hall and two deli-style eateries available, as well as a number of small time mom and pop college restaurants in dilapidated structures build around the out perimeter of campus on the edge of a seedy bordering neighborhood. For the most part, my Aramark plan provided me with some limited healthy options for meals, but also many temptations. The typical college meal plan provides the bare minimum in healthy dining options. It usually offers a salad bar and basic protein side dish, but typically these more expensive fresh produce items are cornered off to one section of the buffet line. Packaged salads are marked up from the usual cost by about 20 percent and often contain wilted leaves. Most of the dining room spread is taken up by high fat and high carbohydrate items. There is an extenive 'bread station'; a dedicated 'pizza station'; an ongoing and busy 'sandwich station'; a well stocked 'dessert station.' Honestly, I actually hated the food in this dining hall except for finding mild dry amusement in the layout and naming of all these so-called 'stations' which reminded me of something I had seen off the Barney (yes, the Dinosaur) show with my 5-year old nephew. With my meal card (depending one's plan –- I selected the deluxe version) –- I was granted access to purchase footstuffs at designated “markets” surrounding campus. These markets are basically the equivalent of convenience stores or bodegas, offering high carbohydrate processed foods and virtually no fresh produce (other than the lone banana or apple lingering in a basket near the register). In these conditions, it is not hard to understand how one might succumb to the dreaded “freshman 15.” Today I am no longer on a campus dining plan. I live in a situation where I am within 15 minutes of a grocery store and I also have limited access to a vehicle. The contrast in my weight, energy level and overall health is great. This confirms for me that my diet and eating habits are influenced depending on what food is available around me. When I am not walking by the 'pizza station' on a daily basis, I am able to stick to my usual high protein, low carbohydrate diet (lean ground turkey, salad, fresh fruit) in order to keep my weight under control. My situation, weight and overall health has imrpoved greatly. This experience suggests that food deserts are a potential problem on many college campuses and that