As we begin another school semester, it’s important to keep the cost of living down. One of the biggest necessities besides gas and rent, is food.
Eating is one of the few biological needs you can’t really ignore or skimp on. Although modern culture often jokes about living solely on ramen and pizza, the dorms are equipped with everything you need to at least attempt to cook a basic meal.
Putting myself in the shoes of a freshman who doesn’t own a car or buy a meal plan makes this issue seem tough. Luckily, public transportation by bus is free for students. Thanks to efforts with the city council, many local buses are part of a fare-free program, meaning you can carry your groceries on board and get to and from campus quickly and safely. The only question remaining is: Where are the local grocery stores?
Given the space available for a single student’s food space a single dorm can house 4 to 8 students each; it’s assumed you’ll be getting a corner of a shelf in the fridge. So at the very least, are freshmen who will only need to deal with a bag or two of groceries of perishable, depending on how the pantry is split among eight people.
The biggest issue is pricing and time. Out of the six stores nearby, I would say only Food Max and Grocery Outlet are low-priced grocery stores. Oliver’s and Reilly’s are the closest but are also high-end organic supermarkets. Unless you have serious dietary restrictions like gluten intolerance, allergies, or chronic conditions such as diabetes or IBS, they aren’t worth the extra cost, even if both are within a 20 to 30-minute walk.
If all else fails, Sonoma State hosts Lobo’s Pantry, the on Campus food bank located just by the mail room in Zinfandel Village. They accept donations and support from the Redwood Empire Foodbank and Farm to pantry with additional funds from grants to purchase whatever is needed for student accessibility.
Founded in 2017, they are open four out of the five days of the week but can set up appointments if you can’t make the set hours. Students can obtain eight to twelve items based on whether they have a food plan with the school or not. To support less stable access to food, students without food plans can even get Protein, like eggs, fish and red meat.
Nadia Juanez, one of the many volunteers, explained to me some of the other services the pantry provides like getting Students EBT.
She said as students checked in to explore the shelves of not only food but personal hygiene items like deodorants and razors.
However when it comes to options for students with food intolerances or other allergies, there is less luck there given the donation-based nature of the Pantry. “Unfortunately we try to have options for students to have like the produce or meats, but we don’t really have a Pacific dietary Section for students.” Miss Juanez would explain further.
Vanessa Royal and Snoop Jahal are a couple of Juniors who’ve been using the pantry since their Freshman year. “When I was a first year I used this a lot,” Royal added, “[the pantry] was nice to have — It wasn’t my sole source of food but it was nice to help”
Both of the students live on campus, where Royal revealed to me that not all of the dorms on campus have Kitchens. “As a senior residence advisor on campus, they put me in Verdot, which doesn’t have a kitchen. So my only heating element is a microwave.” Out of the six villages on campus Verdot is the only one to not have a standard kitchen built in.
The pantry expects the start of the semester to be the busiest, with approximately 20 to 30 students a day. You can even find them during certain quad events when they hand out bags of food already measured out with recipes. Having accessible grocery options for students on campus, like the pantry, is great, but I feel like the school could set aside space for more grocery options, or at least grab-and-go food. At the current moment, Charlie Brown’s cafe and Wine Center cafe have been closed since the pandemic, with no plans of reopening. The student store has some shelves set over the counter, meds, and quick microwavable meals.
Hope this helps you survive the coming semester, keeping the food bills low so you have less to worry about long term, and focus more on your grades!
As for cooking, here is my take that I find helpful while living as a college student:
Get a crock pot, Pressure cooker, or some combo device You can make large meals with little to no effort and even save some for meal prep later in the week. If you’re willing to spend a little money on any of these devices, you can get the cheapest piece of meat, leave it to slow cook while in class, and have something to eat by the time you’re back. Some of them even have a Sauté feature so, when someone else is using the stove you can still pan fry something.
Pre-plan meals and never shop hungry.
Try to plan meals for the week so you’re less likely to be tempted to buy food on the go. Make a list for the items you want to buy for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and do not shop hungry. I found that I tend to splurge more on food when I’m grocery shopping while hungry.
Cook and shop with your roommates and friends.
Set up a communal food bin for non-perishables that you don’tdont want but your roommates may like. My roommates had set up one, and it has saved a lot of trips to the store. Be open to sharing responsibilities like cooking, grocery shopping, and ingredients to make food preparation easier and to foster relationships with your housemates. Sure, you all will have different tastes and dietary needs but It helps to get to know your Roomies better. It’s a great socializer and ice breaker plus many hands make light words.
