Letter to the editor

Dear Editor,

Due to recent events concerning campus food and student health, it has become absolutely necessary to examine dining on campus in a critical light. Every traditionally housed student living on campus is a customer of campus dining services, specifically Sodexo.

As on-campus students are contractually obliged to spend money with Sodexo, there is little doubt that the system is unjust.

Sodexo’s claims must be reasonably assessed in a realistic way.

As the student brain is enriched, a holistic approach would suggest that the student bodies deserve nourishment as well.

Instead of nourishment, however, it is a struggle to find nutritious food in the University’s caloric emporiums. The idea of healthy dining has been defended thus far by the multi-billion dollar, multi-national giant of a corporation that is Sodexo.

A project of the sustainable endowments institute, the green report card, gave UVM’s dining top marks.  This survey was conducted for 100 schools around the country. Efforts that were cited by the Sodexo representative in the survey included food sourcing from student run farms (i.e. the Common Ground project that runs during the summer) and a thoroughly impressive amount of local products.

Something, however, does seem amiss.

The Sodexo rep claimed that local products include “milk, honey, cider, yogurt, salad greens, beef, hamburgers, soy milk, tofu.” Sodexo claimed to have spent $250,000 on local products in 2009.

So where are they?

An experience at any of the dining halls frequented by students may present a narrative removed from the pleasant face shown by Sodexo reps. When entering campus dining, the first option visible is the grease option: frozen hamburger or chicken patty with french fries, pizza.

If these products are not produced in factory farms outside of the bio-region, this is the opportunity for Sodexo to respond.

If the entrées are truly chef-prepared from local, healthy ingredients, it should be known. The reality is there are healthy, local options. They are marked as such, and for this, their prices are unfairly inflated.

The healthy, sustainable option of university dining exists only as deep as the surface level. A student body can’t be fueled by publicity.

There is simply a discrepancy between the food in the pictures, and the food on our plates. With the contractual costs of meal plans, it isn’t affordable to seek out nutrition. Without our consumer power of choice, we are helpless to respond.

A competitive market would force the food to the excellent side of the spectrum at UVM. We deserve it.

It’s time to start demanding it.

Sincerely,
D. Forrest Murray
UVM Sophomore