The Difficulties of Eating Healthy on Campus

As a campus resident, I am very grateful for the wide varieties of food and dining services offered, such as Commons, GSU, Starbucks, and Konover, the on-campus grocery store. While these places offer many options for food, I find it difficult to get access to healthier food options.

Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely healthy options in all the dining facilities across campus, it’s just difficult when the majority of foods that we have access to leans more towards the unhealthy side. For example, at Konover, there are way more sugary options than healthy options. On many occasions, I would go into Konover to buy fruits and vegetables, and there would either be none left, or they would be showing signs of going bad. In Konover, the majority of the healthy food options are located in the front left side in a small section, whereas the rest of the store contains a surplus of chips, candy, sodas, and other sugar filled snacks.

Additionally, the vending machines around campus don’t offer much of a healthy eating style either, though is the essence of a vending machine. However, vending machines could have healthy options, such as adding options that are low in sodium and fat, dark chocolate, and energy bars. As a student who doesn’t have much time for a lunch break, vending machines turn into my hero, allowing me to eat something during the day, that is if the machine is working. On my busy days, I depend on vending machines to eat, so it would be nice to have an increase in healthy options so I’m not eating Sour Patch Kids as a meal.