Dining equality for all

As a freshman, my eating habits rely heavily on the neighborhood in which I live. Living on the eighth floor of Harper Hall in Foster Quad, my daily meals are, or at least should be, centered around Gresham food court.

However, since the middle of October, my floor mates and I have been taking a bus almost every day to the new restaurant dining at Forest Quad for our daily meals.

What seems like the Mecca of RPS dining on campus, Woodland is chocked full of freshly-prepared food fit to your specifications, with each individual restaurant stand changing it’s offerings on a weekly and even daily basis. It blows my mind how different the on-campus dining experiences are depending on where you live.

As a northwest kid, I enjoy the same options no matter what day of the week it is, including chicken sandwiches, tacos, pasta with the choice of the same three sauces, and if you’re lucky to find it open, create-your-own stir fry, which, chances are, is burnt to a nice black, charcoaled, crisp.

The privileged population in the Southeast corner of campus enjoys freshly-grilled steaks with a variety of sauces and sides, create your own skillet tossed pasta entrees, Mexican dishes that rival Chipotle meals and a humongous salad bar including multiple fresh fruit options.

I understand that the facilities over at Forest are more conducive to a more sophisticated style of cooking. However, it is confusing that the quality of similar food options such as pasta can vary so wildly based on location.

It doesn’t take any special kind of appliance to cook penne noodles, yet the pasta over at Woodland is significantly better than those found under the heat lamps at Gresham.

I also understand that food options are limited, since the dining courts are constructed to serve hundreds of people three meals per day.

However, I find it disappointing that the difference in food quality and variety of meals found between Woodland Dining and Gresham food court is so night and day, with easily adjusted options left to
mediocrity.

Woodland Dining options could be largely helpful to some freshman fifteen candidates, who rely on PopTarts and Lays to pad their Gresham meals, by providing healthier options similar to those offered at Woodland.

As someone who has compared and contrasted all of the dining courts on this campus, I encourage the University to throw us Northwest residents a bone and spend some time improving the food and facilities over in our neck of the woods.

Even just providing the same fruit options would be improvement enough.
Unfortunately for all of us non-Southeast residents, we will have to continue using public transportation on a daily basis just to get fruit that hasn’t been laying in a corn syrup soup all day, and enjoy Mom’s home cooking a little more this Thanksgiving break.

­— cnmcelwa@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Claire McElwain on Twitter @clairemc_IDS.