Sam Quartarone
Contributing Writer
There’s only one thing harder to find at the College than Sunflower. A burrito. When I first came to visit the College, I was delighted to find a burrito bar in the dining hall. All throughout the college selection process, I assumed the burrito bar was a fixture of the college community. Come to find out, the burrito bar is not available every day. It’s not even available the majority of the time.
So far, since the beginning of the academic year, there’s only been one consistent burrito bar week. In that one week, the burrito bar was only available during lunch. It is my perspective that the burrito bar should be a staple of the dining hall, replacing pizza.
Every day, the College serves three foods: burgers, french fries and pizza, all of which are extremely unhealthy. It’s also important to consider that the burger and pizza stations have no vegan options, whereas a burrito bar offers a permanent vegan fixture on campus.
Currently, there’s only one vegan-accessible dining station. The burrito bar would open at least two on the daily. Nilay Ernst ’27 agrees, stating, “as a vegetarian, I think it’s absolutely crucial the burrito bar stay open all day.” If the College is really focused on building a diverse learning community, it is important that we honor all students’ dietary restrictions. Many “Pizza Heads” may say that pizza offers a vegetarian option. While Lowry’s pizza can be vegetarian, it is not vegan and still excludes many students.
“Pizza Heads” also don’t want to admit that pizza is simply less healthy than beans and rice. The average fast food pizza, which is emulated in the dining hall, is rich in fat and cholesterol; the average burrito bowl has way more health benefits, including lots of protein and nutrients.
Just the benefits of the beans themselves outweigh anything that could be on a pizza. According to the American Heart Association, “eating beans as part of a heart-healthy diet and lifestyle may help improve your blood cholesterol, a leading cause of heart disease. Adding beans to your diet may help keep you feeling full longer.” What this demonstrates is that adding a burrito bar to the dining hall would help decrease students’ risk of heart disease. It also helps with portion control with beans reducing obesity.
This is a life and death issue, and there’s a good chance that someone’s life could be saved by adding a burrito bar instead of eating burgers and pizza every day. Beans are also incredibly good for digestion when you consider a common complaint of many Wooster students is inconsistent bowel movements from Lowry Dining Hall. Having consistent bowel movements helps improve your mood and increases your ability to do work.
It’s also important to remember that “Pizza Heads” can go get pizza at many places within the community. There are more restaurants in the city that serve pizza than burritoes, and many of them don’t even serve burrito bowl-style meals.
Having a daily burrito bar would expand our global community and it would provide an option for people with dietary restrictions. The College, faculty and students would benefit.
