The hungry, hungry tigers at Princeton have no lack of food. Every day, each of the dining halls supplies a new set of entrees, from Whitman’s famous chicken pot pies to meatless wings, as well as a variety of pastas and salads, for students to choose from. While this wide array of meal options is able to satisfy the appetites of many, people with dietary restrictions can’t just load their plates with everything that looks good. The Daily Princetonian spoke with students and dining hall staff to understand what dining is like when you need to check the ingredients label.
Students on University meal plans have access to Princeton’s four undergraduate residential dining halls as well as dining halls in the Graduate College and at the Center for Jewish Life.
Campus Wellness Dietitian Puneet Sethi wrote to the ‘Prince’ that the “goal is to have a variety of offerings that allow you to mix and match foods from various stations to create a plate that fits into your dietary and lifestyle needs.” Sethi also emphasized Campus Dining’s focus on “menu transparency and management, safe food handling, and training.”
But students said that their dietary restrictions make it hard to benefit from the variety of food choices Sethi referenced.
“Sometimes in the dining hall, the ‘vegetarian option’ is just pasta,” Kylie Shulman ’29, a pescatarian who eats kosher, wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’
Caroline Welty ’29, a vegan, said that dining halls will often serve mushrooms, brussel sprouts, or cabbage and do not have vegan alternatives for entrees. “It’s difficult to get enough protein as a vegan when people think cabbage is a viable protein option,” she said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’
“Oftentimes, the vegan or vegetarian entree has cheese on it,” Welty said. “That’s not vegan, so I don’t have anything to eat except the salad bar.” Welty added that she frequently has had to resort to eating raw tofu for protein.
“Guests seeking guidance on vegan, vegetarian, or other dietary preferences are encouraged to connect with our Wellness Dietitian for personalized support in navigating the dining halls and identifying menu options that meet their needs,” Sethi wrote when asked about similar concerns.
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For students with allergies, their ability to access a balanced diet is not the only problem. Emma Schrier ’27, who is anaphylactic to shellfish and mildly allergic to nuts, said she came across a pack of shrimp dumplings that were inaccurately labeled as chicken dumplings in the Frist Food Gallery.
“One day I was eating the chicken dumplings outside, and they tasted a little stale, or a little weird,” Schrier said. “I saw something kind of orange in the dumpling; I thought it was something orange like a carrot.” That turned out to be a piece of shrimp, which did not cause a reaction, but forced her to stay at the Frist Health Center to be observed in case of a delayed reaction.
“I was so scared the whole time,” Schrier told the ‘Prince.’ “Because sometimes anaphylaxis can come on later. It’s not always immediate.”
Schrier said that she has experienced mislabeling several times.
“They would label types of noodles that I knew had peanut sauce in them, but then in the allergens they wouldn’t say peanuts,” she said.
Welty echoed a similar feeling. “Sometimes they serve pasta, and the sauce is labeled vegan, and sometimes it has milk in it,” Welty said. “And I’ve eaten it before and have not done so well.”
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Sethi wrote in her statement to the ‘Prince’ that “We take food allergens and dietary restrictions seriously and have multiple review processes in place to support accurate labeling across our dining program.”
Being both kosher and pescatarian poses additional challenges, Shulman said, since most kosher meals tend to rely heavily on meat for sustenance instead of leavened products. Shulman expressed that she found it “extremely difficult” to eat in dining halls because “the ingredients weren’t clearly listed on whether or not they were kosher.”
While students cited these flaws in the dining halls’ accommodation of dietary restrictions, they also recognized strides toward inclusivity and support.
Sethi emphasized that “If there is a student or customer who cannot safely self-navigate [their] program, [we] work with them to create individualized plans and accommodations.”
Shulman has experienced the benefits of individualized plans during Passover, when she contacted Campus Dining and was able to get meals specially prepared for her and her pescatarian and kosher restrictions.
“The kitchen staff was super kind, super understanding of my needs,” she said. While this proved more difficult than imagined, seeing that most kosher meals without meat were vegan, she was grateful that Campus Dining was very quick to respond to her requests and provide her with food that fit all her dietary restrictions.
Welty also noted her appreciation for the dining halls’ inclusion of vegan-friendly desserts. One of her favorites is the chocolate “crazy cake,” a fluffy chocolate cake without eggs, milk, or butter.
Sethi said that Campus Dining is always evolving to suit students’ needs.
“Change is constant,” Sethi told the ‘Prince.’ “The student body grows, diversifies, and students’ interests and palates are ever-changing.”
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“There’s always an option,” Shulman said, “It often just takes me a little bit longer.”
YeonWoo Kook is a Features contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
Dining and Cooking