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Oliver

“To ask or not to ask for more rice” this is the question that hundreds of students internally battle with while standing at the hot meal counter, stationed in between the sandwich counter and the grill. Students must muster up their assertive skills or risk going hungry as getting meals from this line feels like one has unknowingly signed up for Jenny Craig or some other weight loss plan. “You can eat whatever you want as long as there are minute portions of carbs and the food does not taste good” Students who have been enticed by the promise of tasty Chicken Masala or seafood curry, watch as miserable helpings of rice are served along with the meal. As anyone from Asia or Africa would tell you, rice is not a side. It is the main dish. While Americans are obsessed with reducing their carbs intake, in many parts of the world, carbs are not enemy number one. A lot of bread and a lot of rice is enjoyed at meals. Even though a significant portion of t-birds are not American, they are still subjected to serving standards that are ostensibly American-centric and would make their countrymen back home shudder. In particularly disastrous cases, a meal of rice and meat is served without a sauce for the rice! This would be considered a taboo in many parts of Africa.

It seems that although the student body and the curriculum at thunderbird are global, Chartwells at Thunderbird has remained immune from the “global citizen” virus floating around campus. This situation needs to be remedied. Otherwise, we may have to start a foundation to raise awareness of the plight of the Rice Deprived T-birds

But international students are not the only ones with complaints. It appears that food portions are served based on size and gender. While bulky males are served copious amount of food, petite students, particularly females are served tiny food portions. It appears that Chartwells is not only committed to reducing our carb intake but also committed to ensuring that we do not exceed their current body weight.