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The Student Food Struggle 

Nicole César Wekking

Welcome to the Student Blog, where other writers and I report about typical student life. This week we touch upon the topic of “food” as a student, therefore if you have any stories or comments about it make sure to write it below! We have enabled a comment section so that everyone can share what they wish. 

Moving to a new city comes with many challenges. As new arriving students, we first are faced with the extremely difficult task of finding housing. Once we have managed that, we need to adapt to a new environment, make friends, keep up with school and ultimately find a balance between personal life and university life. In general, we can say that the students of Groningen have a lot on their plate. 

Nevertheless I wish someone had told me that one of the biggest difficulties of being an independent student would be to manage to cook three meals a day. Eating seems to be the ultimate challenge. Luckily, I am not the only one that struggles with this, as till this day I have not met a student that has optimal eating habits. But honestly, fair enough, who has the time and creativity to come up with three meals a day. 

Within this reality there seem to be only two alternatives regarding eating, none of which are optimal.The first one is not eating/having very questionable eating habits, and the second one is eating the same things religiously. I strongly believe that most of us aren’t able to skip the pesto pasta era, for example. 

The thing with cooking, is that it is an activity that entails many tedious tasks, which include washing the dishes and doing groceries. Spending around 50 euros a week only to eat is no one’s favorite thing. Following this, you’re forced to observe how the food in your fridge slowly starts decreasing, which is just sad. 

The last few days before the trip to the grocery shop are pure resistance. You barely have food, thus you start to rely on struggle meals. A meal which is formed of all the surviving ingredients left in the fridge. This mixture does not need to make sense, in fact it normally does not. But food is food. Well, at least as a student this logic is the best survival tip. To further explore the food phenomena, below you will find some quotes given by fellow students struggling with the tedious task of feeding yourself. 

 “The thing I hate the most about cooking, is how long it takes me, the process of going to the shop, cooking, and then washing the dishes”

“There are many things that I despise about cooking. One of them is coming up with new things to cook. The worst thing is that, although every day I think about a new meal, I always end up cooking the same”

“My eating habits are not optimal.  I cook for one week, and after that, I need a break. That is why for the next two weeks I just order. Honestly, it is not such a healthy habit, and the worst thing is I don’t even order because it is good food, I just order because I don’t have time or energy to cook”

“I try to cook 3 meals a day. But in reality, I normally either skip breakfast or lunch”

“Cooking is tedious but eventually, you get used to it. It just becomes part of your routine, although remains an annoying task”

“Cooking adds a level of difficulty in being a newly independent student because it takes a lot of time. I really think that there should be a canteen that offered food for cheap at every university”

 “Honestly I don’t cook much I mostly eat snacks”

  “I remember this one week, which was horrible for a week I  only ate potatoes and chocolate milk”

 “Last year for a week I just ate Nutella. The situation was this: I got a Nutella for my birthday, and because I did not have money to go do groceries I just ate the Nutella for a whole week, it was horrible”

“The thing I hate the most about cooking is grocery shopping”

“My eating habits are unpredictable. I don’t always have food. And some other times I just have snacks. My eating habits as a student are unpredictable, when I spend too much money on other things I can’t spend on food. And then there are times where I am in a bad mood so I order a lot. Idk they are definitely not the best eating habits.”