Food on campus serves a very specific purpose by providing students with cheap and affordable sustenance to get them through the day without too much hunger or spending too much money.
One noticeable trend in students’ preferences for food on campus is that students’ choice of food falls overwhelmingly between two predominant types: Heavy American fast food and various types of Eastern food.
This is probably a result of the larger trends in Eastern and Western foods in general.
Americans are often criticized for preferring hefty servings of fatty foods, like potatoes and large portions of meat such as hamburgers and steak. Eastern stereotypes vary but are often (not always) lighter and healthier than Western food, and consist of foods like rice, noodles and fish.
Taking this into consideration, it follows that students might make food decisions based not on what country their food comes from but how it satisfies their appetite and keeps them active.
Looking at an establishment like Saxby’s in the Georgia State library, one can see that it’s predominantly Western food. However, like many other coffee shops such as Starbucks, the types of food generally served are on the healthier side.
So one can see that the difference in food is not “West vs. East” but rather “heavy vs. light.” I doubt too many students are finicky enough to really care what country their food is coming from, but at the same time, if they want something quick and light before class, they have little patience for a Philly cheese-steak.
Though this is at least my own personal experience of food on campus, The Student Government Association (SGA) and the International Student Association’s Council (ISAC) seemed to conceptualize the difference as a cultural one.
In February, SGA motioned to allow non-catering companies to sell food during campus events through a measure called Resolution 1501.
The idea behind it was to allow “multicultural food” to be sold during campus events, thereby strengthening the sense of inclusiveness and multiculturalism.
In the case of SGA and ISAC’s campus events, food takes on a new light and can be an expression of multiculturalism and what many vaguely refer to as “diversity.”
However, private and social events have a different ethos from the day-to-day goings on of campus life, so the presentation of food will hold different meanings.
In the case of a private banquet or dinner, presenting a food can be a salient way to identify oneself and one’s culture but underslept students during the day aren’t exactly in the banqueting mood.
It goes to show that food plays different roles in different contexts.
If there were ever a restriction on the types of foods that could be sold on campus, many might worry that the representation of diverse multiculturalism would be at stake. But this isn’t so much an issue during any given school day, which is not really a social environment.
As long as the catering services available to students and teachers provide for their nutritional needs, the types of foods being sold on campus can be from any heritage.
The culture of the food being sold can be used towards this end. One great thing about diversifying the types of food being sold during the day is that it widens the options for the person eating them. In this way, East and West can be balanced together into a meal with just the right heavy-light proportions.
