Cafeteria food — enough said.

It is a bit cliche to complain about cafeteria food: It’s been done for quite some time now. Students are offered a variety of food choices so they may eat what they wish, yet the choice many don’t have is to simply not eat in the dining halls.

Students who live in residence halls are forced to buy a meal plan and therefore, obligated to eat food provided in the residence halls. The dining options include: salads, sandwiches and wraps, daily specials and a large assortment of fried and greasy food. Three different types of meal plans exist. The smallest is the gold meal plan totalling $60.

“Residence students have to have a minimum meal plan, usually gold, because we want students to be healthy and there really isn’t a way for them because they cannot cook in their room,” said Michael Stang, executive director of Housing and Dining.

However, money students don’t use in a week is wasted. If a student is unable to spend about $10 in one week, it will mean $50 wasted after five weeks. Students could use this money for other things: We pay a lot of money to go to school and need to save money. Meal plans can be a waste of money.

“In most cases, [remaining money] has already been spent. We use it to buy food and to pay the staff,” Stang said.

Shouldn’t this money be used based on what students buy? The school doesn’t seem to take inventory on what students spend, but instead what they want us to spend. Even so, if they want students with meal plans to accept this, they should offer fresher food.

“The salads are not fresh because they have been sitting there all day, and this means it loses a lot of nutritional value,” said freshman pre-nursing major Christina Buczek. “I need to pay attention to this stuff because I have a disease called lupus and eating healthy helps control it.”

If salads sit out all day, it does not look as appetizing nor is it considered fresh.

“The best way to eat vegetables is fresh or dehydrated. Dehydrating keeps more nutrients in tact than freezing does,” said biology instructor Joel Hutson.

Still, eating healthy isn’t the meal plan’s only fault. Sometimes students simply cannot eat enough food.

“I have trouble spending my meal plan every week and I have the smallest one.” Buczek said. “I even eat there [at the dining halls] all the time and bring stuff home to put in my fridge. A lot of people I talk to have the same problem.”

Either better quality food needs to be served or the school should offer smaller meal plans.

The dining halls should sell items students can take back to their rooms. These items could be contained drinks, popcorn, Easy Mac, Lunchables, fresh fruits and vegetables, assorted microwavable soups and Thai noodles and possibly packaged sandwich fixings or general groceries. This way, students could better use their meal plans and consume fresher food.

If students need to eat food in residence halls, it shouldn’t be easily compared to hospital food. Contrary to popular belief, not all college students are fast food junkies. The meal plans we’re required to purchase shouldn’t go to waste. This money could go to purchasing other necessities like healthy food.