Harvard Healthy Eating Plate Infographic
Another semester rolls around and meal plans continue to be a mandatory expense. What are you paying for? Few changes have been made to the quality of service Sodexo provides, and students remain disappointed. The least expensive meal plan here costs $1600 a semester. It includes 10 meals a week and $150 to spend at Starbucks or the Simply to Go market.
Alyssa Sinclair is a sophomore here. You may remember her from last semester. Since last semester, she has made the decision to go vegan. This decision, coupled with her food allergies, makes finding a nutritious meal at the cafeteria an onerous task. “There are hardly any vegan options. They’re pathetic, honestly,” Sinclair said.
Vegan options for breakfast are limited to just fruit and oatmeal every day. Breakfast costs $5.71 without a meal plan.
The menu for Sept. 25 lists the options Sinclair and other vegans have to choose from.
For lunch, butternut squash, green beans and sautéed rainbow Swiss chard are listed. The Swiss chard failed to make an appearance at lunch. Lunch costs $7.87 without a meal plan.
For dinner, sautéed broccoli and garlic is listed. Dinner is $9.71 without a meal plan. “So I can have vegetables, and only vegetables, every single day,” Sinclair said. Sodexo has a wider variety of vegetarian options, but normally the only source of protein comes from meat. Beans and tofu are sometimes served, but Sinclair remains unsatisfied. “The tofu tasted like nothing. It was unseasoned and undercooked.”
“The poor quality and service is unacceptable,” Interim Dean of Students Vanessa Pearson said. Pearson has been working with President Rice and Sodexo to resolve the issues students have with the food service. “We’re planning on having an open forum with Sodexo. We want to hear feedback from students.”
That open forum is scheduled for Oct. 17.
