Off-campus living comes with the added bonus of off-campus-feeding-yourself.
There are many steps to the process of avoiding starvation and students tackle these situations in their own way.
Gathering food has changed a lot since the days of picking berries and hunting for meat. On campus, the food-gathering process consists of walking to the dining commons, followed by piling sweet sustenance onto a plate and feasting.
Or, students may hop-skip to Hoot ‘n’ Scoot.
Off-campus food-gathering is a dangerous situation with many perilous choices.
There’s Wal-Mart, Market Basket, Price Chopper, The Monadnock Food Co-op, Hannafords or dumpster diving.
Students have mixed feelings about these options, but Market Basket seems to be a top seller among the student body. “I go to Market Basket, I’m not from New Hampshire so we don’t have one at home, but my roommate works there she told me the prices are really good compared to the other ones,”said junior Morgan Delbene.
Another off-campus culinary warrior, Sarah Croitoru agreed, “Market Basket, I believe it’s the cheapest. They do have a lot of good gluten-free options.”
Expense seems to be a big factor in the choices students make when it comes to where they shop for food. “The most I’ve spent at Wal-mart for food at home is no more than thirty dollars, mostly twenty dollars,” senior John Nagle said.
Katie O’Hurley / Equinox Staff
“We cook for each other, so the money we spend varies but I try to never spend more than forty dollars,” Delbene said. Splitting the cost of food among roommates is common.
“Thirty dollars per person, but honestly we probably don’t need to shop as much as we do,” Croitoru said. This relates to another step of the eating off-campus process; how students prepare the food.
For the most part, many students enjoy cooking. “I cook, I try to do the meat-starch-vegetable style of cooking, it’s fulfilling,” Delbene said.
Croitoru said she enjoys the benefits of the communal eating style, “I eat the food my roommate cooks to be honest, she really likes to cook so I can’t complain,” she said. Cooking staves off the trap of microwave food, “I barely use a microwave now, maybe popcorn or heating up leftovers, I think (communal) is good for us or we’ll eat ramen or these plastic pasta containers that come from Wal-Mart,” Delbene added.
Students are divided on whether they believe their eating habits on campus or off are healthier.
Nagle still eats on campus. “I have the unlimited meal plan, I like it because I like the food there [The Dining Commons]. Obviously if you go to the DC and eat a burger and fries every day, that’s not healthy. But they have the stir-fry and the hot meal and the vegan stuff and the wraps. I think they have a good selection,” Nagle said.
Delbene thinks otherwise. “I feel that I’m healthier now because I’m cooking for myself. When I lived on campus, if I couldn’t make it to the DC, I’d cook something awful like Ramen [noodles],” she said.
Croitoru thinks it lies in the middle. “I think it’s probably comparable because when I was on-campus I was really conscious to make sure that I got vegetables because I didn’t have to cook them. I mean, if my roommate makes something that has vegetables in it I’ll eat it but if I’m making myself lunch it’s usually PBJ or grilled cheese. Usually cucumbers and carrots,” she said.
Croitoru also is gluten-free and vegetarian, so she checked out the newly-opened Monadnock Food Co-op.
“I like that they have a bulk section and they do have a lot of gluten-free and vegetarian options,” Croitoru said.
But she does have some gripes. “However, it’s super expensive and I have a co-op at home so I compare all co-ops to that co-op. I think that this one is lacking in some of the brands that they have,” she added.
Croitoru does recommend the co-op for one thing however, “It’s a good resource to have especially if I’m buying spices. Because I’ll buy them in bulk. It’s not like I have to go and buy them every week,” she said.
Whether they’re being served on campus or off, many KSC students feel mixed emotions about their meals.
Graham Rissel can be contacted at graham.rissel@gmail.com