Meal plans are a reality of campus life, albeit one that most students seem to hate. I’ve known people who have faked allergies and chronic medical conditions just to get out of them (an easy thing to do if you’ve got a doctor in the family). The food is not great and the prices could be better, but at the same time, meal plans can be a blessing in disguise.
I came from a working class family. Cooking was a central part of our daily routine and it brought the family together, but there were also times where the task to prepare dinner was my own responsibility. This was a consequence of the lifestyle. When your parents work long hours into the night, it only makes sense. Although I was also very stubborn, the ability to provide for myself and learn the work ethic necessary to maintain a healthy, sustainable lifestyle were values taught to me at a young age.
Meals plans were at first more of a hindrance than an aid and they cost more than it would have to cook for myself. However, I’m not naive. My upbringing was by no means uncommon, but it is significantly less common in college than in most other places. College isn’t the home turf of the working class and many students haven’t ever had to provide for themselves. For a lot of students, college is the first time they’ll have to make their own food, do their own laundry, take out their own garbage; their parents have always done these things for them. I’ve met people who legitimately didn’t know how to perform these basic tasks and asked me to do it for them. While that kind of parenting is a disservice, it’s often a reality.
While it’s easy to say that students of any background should just be quick on their feet and adapt to life away from home, college is also primarily a means to an end. It is a method to gain the knowledge required to be successful in the workplace and to gain qualifications. College life can be ferociously busy. Meal plans allow students to keep focusing on the task at hand and on their schoolwork rather than worrying about whether or not they’ll have the time to properly feed themselves. That’s been a helpful thing even for me. While I’d rather not be forced to have a meal plan, sometimes the ability to run into the dining hall for a minute or two and have a well-portioned meal is a godsend. I get back to writing my essay or working on whatever else needs to get done more quickly — a to-do list that, as a college student, is never exhausted.
Ultimately, meal plans don’t last forever. If at the end of four years a student still doesn’t know how to cook, they’re going to be in for a rude awakening. But meal plans make sense in terms of the college lifestyle and in context with many of the people who go to college. They allow those people who don’t know how to cook to experiment without feeling pressure to actually sustain themselves and they serve as a quick and easy way to get a balanced meal for those who are in too much of a hurry. On top of all that, the dining hall itself is a social space for students to gather and create friendships. Meal plans weren’t for me, but for many students, they are a saving grace and a central part of the college experience.