At least two times a week before my mom ends her phone call with me, she reminds me to eat my vegetables. This sounds simple enough, right? In theory, produce should be readily available wherever I get my food, but recently that does not feel like the case.
My least favorite day of the week in Dougherty Hall (Pit), is Wing-It Wednesday. I know this may be a hot take, but I just find it impossible to get a sufficient meal from Pit on Wednesdays when I do not like chicken wings. This past Wing-it Wednesday, I was fine with joining my friends in Pit because I planned on just getting a bowl of fruit and maybe a quesadilla, which they usually serve on Wednesdays. Much to my dismay, there was no quesadilla station and, in addition, there was no fruit. Every station in the dining hall was overtaken by wings, ranch and buffalo cauliflower. Don’t get me wrong, I can see how this would be appealing to some, but sometimes I just want some fruit, and I do not think that should be a difficult thing to ask.
Going to a different dining option seems easy enough until I remember that I don’t really want chicken tenders or a salad with wilted lettuce from Belle Air. Then I am reminded that Cova Greens exists, and I get excited for a split second… until it hits me that it closes before 4 p.m. every day. Now, I propose a simple solution for this issue: produce should be sold on campus.
Yes, there are many dining options on campus, more than people give the University credit for, and I am not a picky eater. You can ask anyone I know, but finding something to eat on campus that won’t make my stomach hurt is a close to impossible task. If I had the opportunity to buy a few pieces of fruit or vegetables every once in a while, my experience here would be elevated times a million. Whether this is a small farmers market every weekend or even just some produce being sold in Conn-venience, I believe that it would get a great amount of traction from students.
I am not proposing that Villanova add a whole grocery store to campus because that seems a little unrealistic, and we kind of have that already with Spit’s convenience store, Conn-venience and 2nd Storey. Along with this, most first and second-year students don’t have kitchens, so there is no point in giving them food to make meals. It would be so much more convenient to have access to a bag of fresh greens and maybe even some fruit, other than cantaloupe and soft grapes.
One thing that the University might not take into account with the lack of fresh produce on campus is the fact that many students who are living in on-campus apartments do not have cars.
“It drives me crazy having to go to the grocery store and spend money on food and Ubers,” Commons resident Megan Pisani said.
Students choose to live in on-campus apartments because it is so convenient and much nicer than dorm life, but this lifestyle becomes difficult when they cannot get food to cook in their kitchen.
“I prefer to cook my food because all of the food in the dining hall is either fried or gross,” Pisani said. “I wish they had more options, especially for fruit here.”
Villanova’s student parking website states, “Resident freshman and sophomores are not permitted to have vehicles on campus.” This seems valid because there is not enough room for everybody to have cars, but it is definitely something to consider when allowing sophomores to live in rooms with kitchens, but without access to groceries.
“There is a Villanova shuttle that goes to Wegmans on the weekends, so you can get groceries from there,” Commons resident Aagam Kothari said.
Kothari’s point shows that the University has perhaps already considered its students’ healthy habits. However, I personally had no idea about this shuttle. It is possible that with stronger advertising, this need for fresh produce could be fulfilled.
The challenge of accessing fresh produce and healthy food options on campus highlights a gap in the student dining experience at Villanova. The absence of healthy alternatives like fruits and vegetables can leave students feeling frustrated and deprived of essential nutrition to combat the well-known and loved symptoms of that wretched cold that everybody has at some point. By introducing more accessible produce options, the University could enhance the dining experience for all students. Addressing this need would allow the University to show support for students’ healthy eating habits and would contribute to a more satisfying and well-rounded campus life.
