Editorial : Students need better access to supermarkets
Syracuse University must help make supermarkets more accessible to the many students without meal plans.
Student Association will start a bus to Wegmans this weekend, and a group of three students have started a Wegmans grocery delivery service. But the two projects show students need more than these admirable attempts to expand access to essential food items.
Many students and student households on this campus do not have access to a car. A single student can’t bring more than several bags of groceries home in one bus trip, and a student walking to Tops Friendly Markets by South Campus, likewise, can’t carry more than a few bags through the snow.
SU stocks the Schine Student Center with a handful of easy, frozen food options but not with fresh vegetables or fruit. Students’ best option for variety is the South Campus grocery store, which is more expensive than going to a traditional supermarket with generic items. With the emphasis the university has put into things like ‘Healthy Monday,’ it seems counterintuitive that students without meal plans should have such difficulty accessing healthy foods.
The inaccessibility of supermarkets makes the livelihoods of students with severe food allergies, diabetes, vegan or vegetarian diets or other dietary constraints considerably more difficult. The dining halls place an emphasis on providing meal options for kosher, gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian diets. But with an increased push for a cramped campus to move to off-campus apartments and housing complexes with fully equipped kitchens, many far from any dining hall, SU should seriously re-evaluate how students eat. Students save money by cooking at home and can easily eat healthier or more appropriate diets for their lifestyles.
Students shouldn’t go weeks without buying groceries or be forced to eat sandwiches and bagels at the library or their college eatery because supermarkets are miles from campus. The dilemma of opting for less healthy options, such as cheap fast food, represents a phenomenon in many real neighborhoods, such as Syracuse’s own South Side, because supermarkets sit miles away and cater to a population with easy access to cars.
The university has invested millions of dollars on the Connective Corridor, providing fast and regular bus routes through the city and to Carousel Mall. But it is ridiculous that access to one of the necessities of life — healthy food — requires months of SA members working to implement a measly weekend bus. It’s safe to say students see food as a more pressing issue than experiencing downtown.
