Tag: cw-food

By Echo (Pseudonym)

CONTENT WARNING FOR FOOD AND EATING MENTIONS.

Now that spring break is over, we’re officially in the tail end of the semester, which for many people (including me) means it’s time to ration meal swipes. As you probably know, none of the Wooster meal plans provide students with three meals a day: even the largest meal plan provides 18 swipes a week, which comes up three meals short of the 21 required to eat three every day. As someone who never gets breakfast from the school, though, my personal struggle is about convenience and time. Knowlton provides a pick-up lunch in a calm environment that isn’t as loud, unpleasant, and far from my classes as Lowry is. Plus, there’s no mental pressure on me to get the most “bang for my buck” and eat a huge and time-consuming meal, unlike the all-you-can-eat buffet style of Lowry. Thus, the weeks before finals are either fully or partly interspersed with days where a meal is a bowl of cereal, tea, and whatever free snacks I can hoard from campus events. As I look back on the money I spent during spring break and the money I’m going to need to have for some upcoming expenses – medicines, a gender-affirming product that ranges from $30 – $55, and the cost of the summer storage program – I feel that familiar anxiety. While I have never had an eating disorder, I have had my perception of food and hunger warped by monetary concerns. Sometimes, with money anxiety pressing in, it feels like it’s not horrible to go hungry until a friend can swipe me in for dinner, or until I can find the time in my busy days to cook if I have pasta. This is further complicated by my gastrointestinal issues that necessitate dietary restrictions. While this may sound dramatic to some, wondering why I can’t just get over it and buy food – shouldn’t I be able to when it’s necessary? Why be sparing with necessities? This is a question I try to throw at myself all the time – there’s unfortunately often that nagging sentiment that I’m sure plagues many people in one way or another. “If you can go without it, that means you don’t need it.” Capitalism warps our perception of many of our most basic physiological needs: food with its monetary cost, sleep with its cost of not staying up and doing more work, doing more something, and our need to rest from pain, especially when we have very little choice but to work through it to provide for ourselves and others. And obviously this lack of meeting our needs makes us sicker and weaker, which is bad for our own sake. Capitalism preys on keeping people sick and weak, and often despondent. This is why genuine self-care (the not hyper-commercialized version) is so important, as many more people have said long before me.

Luckily, there is some respite. The food pantry in Babcock can sometimes offer a delicious bright spot in this unpleasant time. Friends or strangers with meal swipes to spare can take a lot of worrying off people’s shoulders, even if just for a bit. And free campus events that provide food or snacks, if you have the energy to walk to them – scrumptious! This ending is not meant to minimize the difficulty of this time, and of the food insecurity and often tied-up money anxiety that many people face during college, as well as out of it. It’s here to let you know that you’re not alone if you’re also facing the harsh meal environment that’s the back third of the semester. And also, that if you have the resources, you could organize a meal swipe exchange with friends or even acquaintances who you know are running low (an idea introduced to me by Woo Mutual Aid) or donate to the food pantry in Babcock Hall. The food pantry also takes other types of donations, such as menstrual products, and according to posters around the school, is currently reachable at _co_corner_ on Instagram. 

WMA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woomutualaid/