Coquitlam Needs Opinions: A vegetarian s perspective on college eating

Julia Adam, OP Contributor

ost students know of the clas-

sic mid-term semester study

days at school. Up early in the
morning, no time to make a lunch (or you
have been so busy that grocery shopping
has been pushed over to the back burner),
you get to school and start familiarizing
your nose with your books. All it takes is
the faintest grumble in your stomach to
convince you that a study break is neces-
sary and you head towards the cafeteria.

Now, if you are spending your long
study days at the New Westminster cam-
pus, the cafeteria is one of many options
to choose from. There is also the deli on
the first floor, sushi restaurants galore
down on 8th Street, Subway, another
lunch deli by the courts...the list goes on.
For those of you who spend your long
study days at the Coquitlam campus, and
for all of the employees who aren’t always
equipped with your brown-paper bag
lunches, your list of eating options is, well,
short.

If it is between 9am and 3pm, you do
have the exciting option of moseying
across to Pinetree Secondary to take
advantage of the Subway and different
cafeteria options, but lunch at a high
school isn’t a lot of people’s definition of
a good time. Even high-school students
don’t want to have lunch there. That’s why
they come over to Douglas! The college
cafeteria is the only other nearby food
option available for needy stomachs at the
Coquitlam campus. This would not be
reason enough to write into the OP if the
cafeteria provided a variety of options

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balancing between healthy and unhealthy,
non-vegetarian and vegetarian.

As a vegetarian who enjoys eating
healthy, I have found myself on several
occasions standing in the middle of the
cafeteria thinking, “What the hell am I
going to eat?” If I am free during the
lunch rush, my options increase a bit
(sandwich deli and salad bar), but other-
wise it can be quite a challenge. There is a
full list of burger-and-fries options, hot
meals that are often meat dishes, plastic-
wrapped sandwiches in the cooler that, in
my opinion, pass as stomach fillers, and
then there are the pastries, doughnuts, and
muffins. Once again, stomach fillers, not
healthy and balanced meal options.
Definitely not the brainpower food that
we book worms need, that’s for sure!

Aside from dissecting the innards of
the Coquitlam DC cafeteria, I am getting
somewhere with this. March was
Nutrition Month in Canada, implying that
healthy eating is now recognized as
important enough to have a whole month
dedicated to its promotion. There was
once a time (when children walked to
school up hill both ways, barefoot, in the
snow) when nutritional eating was the
norm. Eating options in schools weren’t
privatized for companies to capitalize on
students’ need for food during the day.
Healthy food options were not being
jeopardized by a company’s drive to get a
high return of profit from sales. Schools
did not sign contracts with corporate
giants like Coca-Cola and, therefore, were
not lined with vending machines and

coolers packed with pop.

Now, with media influence continually
on the rise, people are often reaching for
the packaged, processed, or fried options
replacing the healthy options that once
dominated schools. Healthy eating is cru-
cial for a healthy body and mind (the two
key things that people rely on to live), and
now nutrition requires enough attention
and awareness that it has its very own
month. Ontario elementary schools are
not the only educational institutions that
need examining if healthy eating is to be a
priority in Canada.

I am not suggesting that Douglas
replace all of the unhealthy and tasty
options with tofu dogs and spinach
(although they are tasty too!). I just think
that there needs to be a greater promotion

of healthy eating in an educational envi-
ronment. It is the and
responsibility of individuals to decide
what they will consume, but a wider vari-
ety of food options may help pull people
out of the “fast-food” corner they often
walk into.

choice

This is my last semester at Douglas, so
my days of wandering aimlessly through
the Coquitlam campus cafeteria are limit-
ed, but for all of those who will spend
future semesters studying and working at
the campus, I hope they witness a day
when the food options available resemble
that of the New Westminster campus. If
others hope for the same thing, let the
Coquitlam campus cafeteria know either
by filling out a comment card or telling an
employee.

You are not alone

The Students’ Union’s Pride Collective
provides resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgendered students at the college. The Collective
meets Thursdays at 3:00 in room 328 in the students’
union building at the New Westminster Campus.
All lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered,
questioning and allied students are welcome.

 

Douglas Students’ Union

Canadian Federation of Students Local 18

 

April 6/2005