One of the most unsettling things is to see a hungry student. Not only is it difficult to understand and hear students on Illinois Wesleyan’s campus cannot afford the meal plans here, but also that there are no ways to help these students not go hungry.
Hunger is not just something that goes away. Our bodies are speaking to us when we feel an empty space where nutritious meals are supposed to be. When we sit in class, we can hear our stomach grumbling, reminding us that we are not even good enough to eat until we feel healthy.
The meal plans at IWU need to change. As a student who is lucky to have an unlimited meal plan, I am attentive to what I eat and when I eat it. Food is pivotal in having a healthy mind. It’s an idea that the school promotes, but also manages to dismiss.
Regardless of balancing all my classes and projects well, sometimes I go hungry. There is never enough time in the day to complete all the tasks, even if that means putting my wellbeing at risk.
And if my professors say otherwise, I know they are saying it out of empathy. But the reality is even when we do work hard, we are not rewarded.
So when the school decided to raise the prices of meal plans, require us to purchase one and then limit the times and places we can eat on a regular basis, then yes, I do have a problem. To know that someone in my class can be hungry, tired and not feel degraded because of their financial situation breaks my heart.
When I go to swipe another student because I purchased a meal plan and it is my money–let me restate—my moneyI have a problem with the rules changing and not letting me swipe for a friend. How else does the staff here think giving a student 40 meal swipes a week work?
After doing the math, even if I did use all 17 extra meal swipes, that would mean I would have on average three snacks a day.
IWU Dining makes the rules, the students pay, the staff gets their wages regardless and yet we are the ones still complaining that the food options are unfair.
Yes, there is a problem with many students here not being able to afford the meal plans, but should the university decide to take money to spend on a new cafeteria for the students who can’t afford to eat in it?
If there is a student that can’t afford to eat three meals on campus every day, we need to see if they can afford two a day. If not two, then one. The one student that goes hungry each day is one more person in this world who feels like their health does not matter.
I believe if the university, at the small size it is, cannot provide all students a guaranteed and protected promise to provide any amount of food for students regardless of a meal plan or not, then they need to reevaluate where they are spending our money. Because one day, that hungry student can be you.