We all know chips and pizza are fuel for students, but after Jamie Oliver came along and swapped all the chocolate for apples students of Britain are offered healthier options for their lunch. We all know healthy eating is important, but a lot of us also find it absolutely boring. Who eats celery sticks anyway? (I do). I wanted to investigate if the canteen was doing anything to make our healthy options more exciting and to find out how difficult is it to cater to the needs of hundreds of hungry teenagers every day.
Q. How have the healthy eating options in college changed over time?
A. I'd definitely say it's improved in terms of what we offer and how many people want to bother with
healthy options. Whenever we have meetings a lot of people mention healthy options,my question always is "what is your definition of a healthy option?" because some people are quite happy to have a sandwich as a healthy option whereas some people want a jacket potato or a salad. There's always vegetarian dishes on, there's always fresh fruit, we've even started doing little Graze pots.
Q. Have you initiated any change introducing healthier options in the college canteen?
A. As we are part of a contract catering company, we adhere to their food
offer to ensure consistency. Healthy options that are part of the offer include a salad bar, fresh fruit, baked breakfast items, jacket
potatoes, soup, made-to-order sandwiches at the deli bar, and a selection of healthy snack ideas such as Graze and fruit and nut bags.
I interviewed Vicki Mulqueen, the Catering Manager who has worked in the Coleg Cambria for 7 years.
Q.How do you make the healthy food more appealing?
A. We try to tailor our menu to appeal to customer trends and encourage them to come dine with us, our Ni Hao offer is similar to wok and go, and it's made from fresh meat (or Quorn) and vegetables, and it doesn't contain any additional oil or salt.
Marta
Flakiewicz
We all know the canteen at Yale. We're familiar with the tuna sandwiches, the pizza, the colourful benches. But what goes on behind the scenes? I took it upon myself to investigate what the canteen is doing, and more specifically, what are they doing about healthy eating?
Try the
healthy option