Running head: ALTERNATIVE FOOD OPTIONS 1

Access to Healthy Food Alternatives

Tyler J. Debeauclair

Saginaw Valley State University

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What you eat and drink in college can make a big difference during college and well

beyond. College may be the first time that you are away from Mommy and Daddy and are

making decisions about what to put in your mouth on your own. It is when you are potentially

programming some of your habits for life. You may also still be growing in college, which

makes good nutrition especially important. And then there's the "Freshman 15", which may be a

little closer to the "Freshman 7.5," based on a study that measured the average weight gain in

pounds for first year college students. The same study found that overweight and obesity rates

increase by more than 15% for first-year college students.

Healthy may not be the first thing you think of when you picture college eating. Instead,

it may be late-night takeout, food from bags, ketchup as a vegetable, beer as water, cereal for

dinner, and Nutella on everything. Oh and when the cafeteria's vegetable-of-the-day is

mushroom, it may actually be "mush" served in a room. According to a study published in 2014

in the journal Preventive Medicine, 95% of college students fail to eat the recommended amount

of fruits and vegetables, and more than 60% report not getting enough physical activity. That,

parents, is what your precious, meaning your kid and not your ring, may not be doing when he or

she is away in college.

That's why the Partnership for Healthier America (PHA) started the Healthier Campus

Initiative. This initiative needs to be incorporated to Saginaw Valley State University and our

campus life. As PHA's CEO Nancy Roman explained, "college is an important time when people

are still developing and also establishing habits for the rest of their lives." As science has shown,

once your eating habits are established, changing them can be even more difficult than changing

your cell phone contract. Yes, knowledge and a diploma aren't the only things that you can get

for life from college. That means that collegiate eating and drinking could be contributing to the
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continuing obesity epidemic and the host of diet-related chronic diseases that keep growing in

our country. On our campus we have multiple food options and these are all different to eat

healthy with.

Which meal plan do I choose?

Freshmen who live on campus are required to purchase a meal plan. Your meal plan choice will

affect your intake of food (Brown, Dresen, & Eggett, 2005). It can be confusing because two-

year colleges and four-year universities are different in offering meal plans. Most four-year

universities offer meal plans while some two-year colleges do not offer meal plans to incoming

students. When a meal plan has to be purchased, a number of options are available to incoming

freshmen. If you get an opportunity to conduct a college visit, you should always request to look

at their meal plan options. You will need to do your homework to determine which meal plan

works best for you and your family’s budget.

 Some meal plans offer a certain number of meals per week or semester that must be eaten

at the dining hall. That means you have unlimited access to the dining hall. At each visit,

money is deducted from your account until you have a zero balance in your account.

 Meal plans may offer flex points or dollars which allow students the option of spending a

certain number of dollars on food bought from vending machines and on campus restaurants.

 Colleges may have agreements with off-campus vendors so that you may use your meal

plan to purchase food at their restaurant.

 Students living off-campus will have more flexibility in selecting their meal plan. They

might be able to purchase a more flexible eating plan that allows them to eat any number of

meals on-campus and have the option of purchasing meals off-campus.

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 Remember that the amount of money remaining from your dining plan or card may not

carry over to the next semester.

Interesting research facts about eating in college:

 College students who see their food in the cafeteria line made more healthful food

choices than students who selected their meals from a menu board (Just, et al., 2006).

 Students who paid for food with cash made healthier food choices than students who paid

with a debit card (Just et al., 2006).

 The use of an unrestricted debit card led to students eating more calories compared to

students who used a restricted debit card or cash (Just et al., 2006).

 Colleges are indirectly trying to help students control their weight. Many colleges have

removed trays from their cafeterias. The removal of trays has reduced the amount of food and

water consumption by college students. Research has found that college students would

wander around the dining area to fill their trays with food and drinks to only eat a little of the

food or waste the food. (Curry, 2008; Horovitz, 2008).

Eating in real life:

If you eat most of your meals in a college cafeteria or have a meal plan, maybe you know the

feeling: You walk in to your campus dining hall with every intention to eat a healthy meal, but

just one look at the salad bar’s limp greens and mealy tomatoes has you opting for a slice of

pizza instead. Sometimes the limited selection of wholesome dining hall fare makes it easy for

college students to put healthy eating aspirations on the back burner.

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Results of a recent poll by the International Food Information Council Foundation show

American adults are trying and failing to fit in the average government-recommended 4.5-5

servings of fruits and vegetables a day -- a struggle that’s familiar to college students. In fact,

many students aren’t even eating one serving of fruits or vegetables in a day, according to a

study of student eating habits published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior last

August.

But is this really a surprise? Bound to campus dining services by meal plans or convenience,

students encounter all kind of obstacles to balanced eating. Poor variety of fruits and veggies, the

high cost of fresh food in comparison to processed snacks and limited access to nutritional

information in cafeterias can all stand in the way of eating well at school.

Solution:

The problem that I identified is a lack of healthy options at schools and colleges. There is a very

small selection of foods and a majority of these are sugar filled, unhealthy options. The hours in

the cardinal cafe are very limited and not even open on weekends. A solution to this would be to

increase the freshness and have the majority of the food be home cooked.

I found an issue with the equivalence to db in relation to foc swipes. People should care about

this as those college students staying on campus over the weekend have a lot more free time than

during the week. This will lead to a greater likelihood for food consumption. Due to this and the

fact that the cardinal cafe isn’t open on weekends they have very few healthy alternatives outside

of the foc. Even if students choose to eat healthy at the foc they will soon find that it is the same

food every day and lacks variety. An important part of a healthy lifestyle is having variety in the
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food you consume so you get your daily vitamins and are meeting your body's caloric and macro

requirements.

This problem would be solved by hiring a full time manager for the cardinal cafe who isn’t a

student. This would ensure there aren’t scheduling issues that would be common with a student

occupying this position. From there I would put out job opening notifications about a month in

advance and begin the application process.

All of this would allow the cardinal cafe to be open for longer hours, be open weekends, increase

job opportunities for students on campus, and increase the overall health of our student

population. This would also be a benefit for students without transportation options on campus (a

car).
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References

Gollnhofer, J. F., Weijo, H. A., & Schouten, J. W. (2019). Consumer movements and value

regimes: Fighting food waste in Germany by building alternative object pathways.

Journal of Consumer Research, 46(3), 460-482.

Haddix, C. M., Kraig, B. & Sen, C. T. (2017). The Chicago food encyclopedia. Urbana, IL:

University of Illinois Press.

Naccarato, P., & LeBesco, K. (2008). Edible ideologies: Representing food and meaning.

Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Retrieved from

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=c268ea31-19dd-433b-8c83-

f072ff7b7f5e%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=e000xn

a&AN=232969