St. Edward’s students have a lot to say about food on campus. Many students, including me, complain that they are tired of the same options week in and week out.

This semester alone, I lost count of how many salads I have eaten just to avoid eating another sandwich or veggie burger or whatever vegetarian meal option was offered that day.

Bon Appétit is St. Edward’s sole food vendor; they are currently in a 10 year contract with the university. One of the rules of the contract is that no other food vender can provide food on campus. Because of this, students are forced to eat the same food over and over again.

Bon Appétit provides “food service for a sustainable future,” but by focusing so much on using locally grown, organic, sustainable foods, they let variety of food slip through the cracks.

Walking into Ragsdale, it is clear that Bon Appetit makes an attempt to provide students with different types of food: there’s a salad bar, vegetarian station, sandwich station, grill, cuisine and Italian. There are only so many combinations, though, before your meals become repetitive. 

Every once in a while, I see something new that I really want to try out. Last week in Ragsdale, I saw that the vegetarian selection was a falafel. I ordered it, fully expecting it to taste as good as the falafel I had eaten at the 2013 Mediterranean Fest.

My high expectations got the best of me, and I was strongly disappointed with the taste. I wasted $7.50 of my meal plan for food that I didn’t actually eat—not a rare occurrence.

Often, I find that I don’t like the food I buy, but there’s not a thing I, or anyone else, can do about it.