The Case of the Vanishing Food

If you’ve been eating in Harvard’s dining halls for the past month, you’ve probably noticed something afoot. Food items have started to vanish. Thigh meat has replaced breast meat in chicken dishes. Wedge tomatoes have been added to substitute the cherry tomatoes. White batter products have replaced whole-grain waffle batter and pasta.

In response to higher food prices, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) has begun to phase out several menu items in favor of cheaper, less healthful alternatives.

Given the way that HUDS’ budget is determined, its constraints are understandable. The board rate is negotiated in the winter prior to the school year, forcing HUDS to get creative in light of rising food prices. Although HUDS inevitably has to make cuts in the short term, HUDS has employed backward logic in deciding which items to cut. Its solution to recent budget constraints poses a serious threat to students’ health.

For example, white pasta has emerged as a regular staple in at least one of the three entrée offerings at lunch and dinner. HUDS has admitted to using white pasta to spread out leftover ingredients, or, as HUDS spokeswoman Crista Martin put it in a recent Crimson article, “not leftover foods, but their components.” White pasta has minimal nutritional value. It sits at the top of the “Healthy Eating Pyramid” devised by nutrition experts at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), alongside white bread, potatoes, soda, and sweets. According to the HSPH site, these items “can cause fast and furious increases in blood sugar that can lead to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic disorders.”

Although HSPH experts say that the items at the top of the pyramid should be used “sparingly,” HUDS has actually increased their presence in the dining halls in the face of higher costs.

Rather than remove the most nutritional options from dining halls in favor of cheaper, unhealthful alternatives, HUDS should cut back on its least nutritional fare, such as desserts, sugary cereals, and French fries. HUDS should also preserve healthful options like whole-wheat pizza, brown rice, and organic peanut butter, as well as the already limited organic and vegetarian fare.

In defense of HUDS’ menu changes, HUDS representatives have framed rising food prices as a universal problem. This may be true, but other universities’ dining services have adapted without sacrificing the health of students.

Last week’s Crimson reported that Boston College Dining Services, which charges students per item, has slightly increased the prices of certain items rather than reduce variety. More significantly, Yale University Dining Services has neither eliminated items from the menu nor reduced the frequency of organic and free-range food products, despite the fact that food vendors have raised the prices for the university. One student told The Crimson that Yale had actually expanded sustainable options in all its dining halls.

Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, former chair of HUDS student advisory committee, told The Crimson that HUDS can request what they’d like to change in the board rate, but the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) must approve the figure. He added that HUDS may be constrained by what FAS thinks HUDS needs.

Perhaps FAS isn’t aware of the recent menu changes. In that case, we extend the invitation to faculty and administrators to come eat in the dining halls more often—and not only during student-faculty dinners, at which food quality is unusually high. Since FAS has to approve HUDS’ budget every winter, FAS should also keep a closer eye on HUDS’ budgeting. Other universities’ dining services have not had to make menu cuts in the face of budget constraints; HUDS should be no different. The last time we checked, white pasta was no better for students in Cambridge than in New Haven.