Residential dining hall offers healthier options

The crowd went wild as the clock ticked down. 5..4..3… students stuffed cheeseburgers into their mouths, trying to beat the clock. 2…Burgers were being crammed into already full mouths. 1…0 Bzzz. All eight contestants' hands flew up as their mouths chewed vigorously, swallowing down their last bites. 

The reason for the madness was a Smashed Burger eating competition that Buffalo State College offered to students on Oct. 27.

The winning number was just under four cheeseburgers, demolished in four minutes according to Manny Lezama, Buffalo State's senior director of dining services.

After witnessing this burger-gorging event it might be hard to tell that Buffalo State College is one of the many colleges around the nation moving toward healthy eating — 

but it is. Buffalo State College is moving toward healthier eating and more choices for students with dietary restrictions.

Lezama said the Smashed Burger competition offered nutritious options, including turkey burgers and vegetarian burgers after a few students asked for them.

These students didn't end up participating in the contest but brought up an important point: Ask and you shall receive. 

"We have one-on-one consultations with students that have restrictions in their food," he said. "The door's always open."

Lezama encourages students to make their dietary needs known. He recommends talking either to him or the resident dietitian, Jill Troian.

Troian's role on campus is to provide students who have restrictive diets healthy options that are easily accessible.

"All of the chicken that we purchase is raised without antibiotics, and we purchase milk that doesn't have any artificial hormones in it," Troian said in regard to the resident dining hall's menu. "We are very focused on sustainability."

Buffalo State has even invested in a new gluten-free bread maker called Bready.

"There are more and more people discovering they have Celiac disease, a disease that prevents them from eating gluten," Troian said.

The machine is an all-enclosed system that makes an assortment of gluten-free items, including white bread and cakes. These gluten free breads will be offered in the resident dining hall in the student union.

Troian also talked about the variety of salads, soups and sandwiches on whole wheat bread that are offered all over campus, not just in the dining hall.

Students have noticed healthier options on campus and feel they can manage to eat healthy with what they are given.

"It's not my mom's cooking," said Jennifer Steinhorst, a freshman student who lives on campus and eats in the Resident Dining hall often. "But they do have good fruits and vegetables. They have good portions that they put on the plate."

For commuter students, healthy options can be found all throughout campus. Cafe Au Lait, in the science building, offers healthy grab and go options. Students can buy yogurt parfaits, a cup of fruit or a small salad before heading to class.

Outtakes, one of the retail dining centers on campus, will be opening up a "Wall Mall" which will offer vegetable cups, hummus and pretzels, and fresh fruit in the union near the resident dining hall.

Although the Smashed Burger competition was not the healthiest event on campus, it did not reflect Buffalo State's dining mission or negatively affect student's diets.

"Our mission is obviously not eating that many burgers in four minutes," Lezama said. "The mission is to change the morale here at Buffalo State."

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