I didn't realize that moving to the University of Massachusetts would mean that losing one of my favorite foods. I remember writing in my application that one of the reasons I wanted to go here was due to UMass's status as number one on the Princeton Review's list of Best Campus Food. I remember walking into all the different dining halls for the first time and being overwhelmed and excited by the variety of food. There was so much available at the dining hall, from sushi at Hampshire, pho at Worcester, late night treats at Berkshire and good old tomato soup and grilled cheese at Franklin. The dining halls had -- and continue to have -- so much to offer with each dining hall having its own atmosphere.
When I walked into Frank last Monday, I was expecting to see regular food and eat my usual mediterranean style salad. Instead, "APPLE WEEK" was written across the dates in the calendar on the TV screens at the entrance of the dining room. I didn't know what could this mean: Were the desserts going to be apple themed all week? Would there be more apple juice?
And then, I saw it. Something that I had not realized I had forgotten about: fruit. There were boxes lined up on one of the tables filled with apples. Every kind of apple you could think of was there: honey crisp, red delicious, granny smith, golden delicious, pink lady and fuji. No matter your apple preference, you could find it in one of those bins.
In the beginning of the week, I would fill my pockets with a few different kinds of apples and try to sneak them out of the dining hall because it felt so wrong for them to even be there in the first place. Maybe someone left their giant apple collection in Frank by mistake? But when I went to other dining halls and found similar large amounts of apples, I figured that they were up for grabs. I would proudly march out of the dining hall carrying two or three at a time, like any fruit deprived person would.
Until this point, I hadn't even really acknowledged the fruit in the dining hall apart from the occasional bowl of mushy raspberries that are served in the early hours of the morning. So, I made the decision to go check out the other fruits available, with little to no success. I walked away with a dry grapefruit and a piece of slimy watermelon. This wasn't fruit, and definitely not what I want to eat when I am craving something sweet and tangy for a snack.
This got me thinking: where's all the fruit? Sure, there is the occasional clementine, pear, or plum kicking around Worcester, but where are the cherries and blueberries? Why do I have to settle for mushy grapes and cantaloupe? It just doesn't feel right. I began thinking about ways to fix this. What if we did other fruit weeks? We could have a peach week in the very beginning of the school year when they are still in season. There could be peaches made readily available every day for a week, along with desserts like peach cobbler, peach pies and peach ice cream. We could have raspberry, cherry and blueberry weeks in the Spring. There could be desserts, juices, yogurts and ice cream toppings that match the theme along with a large supply of fruit. During the winter months, the school could do kiwi and banana weeks.
Instead of themed weeks, the school could put their efforts in making berries more accessible year-round. Fruit is expensive, but if that is part of the problem I would argue that steak and lobster on Halloween is far more so; this event could be sacrificed in exchange for more consistent fruit. I am willing to bet that the majority of the student body would agree with me, and the ones that are opposed probably just haven't realized how much they miss fruit.
Now that apple week has come to an end, I feel rather nostalgic about my time eating apples already. I'm going to miss my apple with every meal, but I'm hoping that there will be more opportunities to eat different kinds of fruit in the future. Whether it is a pear-on-pear week or enjoying some blueberries with breakfast, the important thing to note is that the school has some options. Though, it wouldn't hurt the university to opt for more fruit weeks, or have a more consistent supply of fruit -- especially berries.
Either way, us hungry college students deserve to eat fruit.