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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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​Le struggle meal

A look into the struggle meals of UB students

<p>Many students have experienced being broke and not knowing where or how they are going to get their next meal. The Spectrum interviewed UB students to find out just exactly what students do when they only have random assortments of food in their fridges and how they make a meal out of it.</p>

Many students have experienced being broke and not knowing where or how they are going to get their next meal. The Spectrum interviewed UB students to find out just exactly what students do when they only have random assortments of food in their fridges and how they make a meal out of it.

As the year winds down, dining dollars and meal swipe reserves become depleted and students are forced to make a meal happen with minimal to no funds.

That being said, college students are no strangers to struggle meals – it’s almost a rite of passage for a college student. If you haven’t had a struggle during your college career, did you even go to college?

While struggle meals come in various forms, the varying levels of ‘struggle’ associated with each meal is in the eye of the beholder.

“At my lowest, it was sardines and a pot of beans,” said Daryl Duhart, a senior economics major. “I stopped eating meat, but I didn’t know how to cook without meat. So I just started making big pots of beans – now I don’t really like beans.”

Sardines and beans might not be at the top of many students’ preferred meal list, but it might be the preferred alternative for the others students.

While it may seem pretty rough, some students struggle meals don’t even involve cooking the meal.

This was the case for Dexter Collins, a freshman who had lived in the dorms during spring break. He didn’t realize his food options in the Student Union would be limited during the break.

He went to Tops to take money out of his bank account to see what he could afford for food.

“For a week straight the only thing I ate for a week was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and water,” Collins said.

Although struggle meals are never fun to have, having a friend there to make jokes and laugh at your predicament always makes it a bit easier to go through.

That’s the method that Makayla Hicks, a sophomore English major, and her roommates use when they find themselves with a struggle meal.

“My worst meal was probably a Lean Cuisine dinner. It’s not even real food to be honest,” she said. “My roommate eats dry toast a lot, we joke about it all the time, especially now when you don’t have [dining dollars].”

Fortunately, if you don’t have someone to laugh with about your struggle meals and can’t laugh at yourself, tears have been cited as being a suitable seasoning.

email: arts@ubspectrum.com

Kenneth Kashif Thomas is an arts editor and can be reached at kenneth.thomas@ubspectrum.com

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