The 15

The Bad

The food situation at Helaman Halls is not the healthiest. There are about three options for the residents to choose from. They are the Cannon Center Cafeteria, Cosmo’s Connection, and the vending machines. At the Cannon center, there are two choices for a main dish and sides, a hot food bar with different choices of food, a sandwich bar, a salad bar, and a dessert bar. At Cosmo’s Connection, there is a selection of groceries and a grill that serves a variety of fast foods and shakes. The vending machines are located in every building lobby and contain a wide selection of drinks and snacks and frozen foods. These selections offer a variety of food choices but they are not necessarily healthy.

The ways that typical freshman obtain their food are not all healthy. They encourage students to overeat, choose fattening and greasy foods, and to eat whenever they feel the slightest bit hungry. The meals in the Cannon center are mass-produced and not made to be healthy. They are commonly slathered with sauce fried with breadcrumbs. Everything here is buffet-style and there is no limit on the amount that a student can dish-up. All of Cosmo’s packaged food choices are high-calorie, high-sodium, and processed. The food form the grill is fried or cooked on an oily grill. The food here is relatively inexpensive which encourages the students to buy more. And who can finish a meal without a shake? The vending machines are always open, even in the late hours, and ice cream is always available for a bed-time snack.


The Good

Helaman Halls has a few options for there residents to choose between concerning meals and snacks. These choices include the Cannon Center Cafeteria, Cosmo’s Connection, and many vending machines. The cafeteria typically provides the students with a choice between two entrées and a plethora of other options to accompany or even substitute for the main course. Some examples of the meals are ranch chicken, beef pork ribs, smothered beef burrito, and orange chicken. Another option that the populace has to satisfy their hunger is Cosmo’s Connection. This is a grill and small convenience- type store. Many packaged and processed foods can be purchased here as well as items from the grill that include hamburgers, chicken and bacon sandwiches, quesadillas and grilled cheeses. Every candy bar imaginable as well as other greasy, salty snacks can be purchased from the small store. The third alternative, which the entire student population has access to, is the vending machines. These are located through out campus as well as in the lobby of every building in Helaman Halls. These offer a variety of sustenance for the student body ranging from snacks to candies to frozen entrées to drinks. These are always ready to dispense food with only the push of a few buttons. While it is true that there are many choices for the residents to choose from, they are not all healthy options that encourage the students to demonstrate self-control.

The majority of the students that live in the dorms have a meal plan that adds ten dollars a day to a meal card and that money is used to purchase his or her daily meals. The amount on the card can continue to build up until it reaches seventy-five dollars, the average resident has about thirty dollars on their dinning card on any given day. This money is almost as if it is not real, it is often referred to as “Monopoly money” because it seems to come and go so easily. The feeling of the unimportance of money encourages students to overeat, choose fatty and greasy foods, and to eat every time they feel the smallest it of hunger pains. The Cannon Center is served in a buffet style which allows students to eat as much food as they would like. Many spend hours in the cafeteria socializing which leads to picking up more plates and snacking all night long. The amount of food served is a problem, but the quality is also a destroyer of health. The meals in the Cannon center are mass-produced and not made to be healthy. They are commonly slathered with sauce fried with breadcrumbs. The side choices include French fries, wilted vegetables, and fruit salad swimming in whipped cream. The desserts are endless and encourage the eater to keep coming back for more and more until they have tried them all. At Cosmo’s the food is inexpensive and tastes wonderful, yet it could easily clog your arteries. The price level combined with the “Monopoly and money” mentality is an equation that leads to ordering enough food for an entire family and eating it yourself. If the food was not enough, there is always the long list of milk-shake flavors. The items cooked up at the grill are either fried in a deep vat of fat, or cooked on an oily piece of hot metal. The packaged items are not a healthy choice either; they contain high amounts of fat, sodium, and calories. The vending machines are often the only thing open late and are an easy way to access the sugary food of your desire all with just a swipe of the magic card. These are conveniently scattered all around campus so if one is hungry, or just bored, in class food is always accessible. The options freshmen living in the dorms have to feed themselves are of a wide variety ant yet the options of healthful food are slim.