As the lunch rush hits the Student Center, both commuters and residents face the daily dilemma of finding the perfect place to eat on campus, a spot that fits their budget, tastes good and is convenient. But for many, limited dining options and tight schedules make eating on campus more of a challenge than a break.
Between the buzzing Student Center, the all-you-can-eat setup at Memorial Hall, and the classic options at Hilltop Café, CCSU students are constantly weighing cost against convenience and the possibility of meal plans.
When it comes to eating between classes, there’s one question every commuter asks at some point: Do I eat on campus or try to bring and store my own lunch? Bringing food from home comes with its own challenges, like figuring out how to keep it fresh between classes. Moments like that make you wish a car refrigerator came standard with your parking pass.
Freshman Ceirsten Carrethers prefers bringing her lunch to campus as a more cost-effective way to eat throughout the day.
“I feel like it’s a cheaper option because you can bring multiple things, not just one meal for a price of multiple,” Carrethers said.
The trick to keeping lunch on campus is selecting nonrefrigerated options so a commuter can keep their lunch in their bag or car; however, this tends to become boring.
With pricey options on campus, Carrethers is not the only commuter who brings a meal to campus. When a commuter has classes multiple times a week, the price of meals adds up fast, becoming a weekly bill on top of that lovely weekly gas bill.
The Student Center attracts a lot of commuters because there is no need for a meal plan there, like at Memorial Hall. Commuter Pacifique Kalala sees the cost of food on campus as a challenge for commuters.
“I enjoy Devil’s Den. When you’re a commuter and buying it, like $20 here and $20 there, it’s kind of discouraging,” Kalala said.
Kalala was a former resident and shares both sides of the story.
“I will definitely say when I lived on campus, Devil’s Den was my favorite, and dining hall-wise, Hilltop,” Kalala said.
Dining halls can be foreign to commuters because of the need for meal plans. Some commuters have found meal plans beneficial, especially if they find themselves on campus for the majority of the week. A commuter meal plan could be a potential solution to lowering the weekly cost of commuter life.
Commuter Cody Dzis has go-to spots and spots to avoid.
“Usually, I like to order from Sub Connection. From my experiences ordering at each one, they’re the most consistent with the amount of time it takes to make the orders … and they always get my order correct,” Dzis said. “The Grille is the other go-to spot for me, because if I want more dinner-type food, if I’m at campus later in the day, it’s a great choice.”
Costs for the food options at Devil’s Den, to Dzis, are something that seems understandable.
“I feel as if there are solid prices on sandwiches because with everything the school needs to purchase for their kitchen’s inventory, it costs a pretty penny, and people probably don’t realize that. I’d say the food is priced fairly for the most part,” Dzis said.
With a mostly great review of the Student Center options and prices, Dzis has a final thought on Qdoba and Sal’s missing the mark.
“The quality of the pizza at Sal’s needs to be improved, in my humble opinion, as a guy who loves all food,” he said. “It’s not bad, but the cheese easily falls off like it’s elementary school lunch pizza. I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money on that.”
“Qdoba has some flaws; their portion sizes, from my experience at least, have been significantly low, and they take a long time to get your food out,” Dzis said. “If I want to wait that long to get half a serving of rice and beans with meat in a container, I’ll just go to a grocery store and make it all myself.”
Devil’s Den may win on taste and convenience, but for commuters balancing growing budgets, bringing food from home often proves the better option.
