An increase of the healthfulness of college campus food environments is an important step in promoting healthful food choices among college students. 

A cafeteria is an environment where students are presumed to enjoy, due to all the food options and the atmosphere with fellow classmates eating their food. All eating habits and meal plans differ when it comes to every student on campus, for an example, athletes and regular full-time students. 

So much is buzzing on Morningside College campus, topics ranging in all varieties. A frequent conversation between students will most likely include the mention of food; whether it be breakfast/lunch/dinner on campus. 

Morningside College contracts with Sodexo to provide campus meals to residence hall students.Sodexo is a French based food company that caters over 44 colleges and universities in the USA.

In a mini-series interview, 3 students were asked from Morningside about their nutrition intake and their eating habits depending on what activities they participate in. Discussing how Morningside food services meet their desires and needs of nutrition. Two athletes and one full time student were interviewed. 

Madisyn Heeren, a small forward Sophomore on Morningside’s Women’s Basketball pondered over what sets her eating habits apart from others by managing practice, weight lifting, individual workouts, and being a nursing student. 

All students on campus have different meal plans, when asked about Madisyn’s plans and why she replied stressfully, “I’m on a 14-meal plan because I don’t have time to eat lunch. I’m always doing basketball shit and trying to balance a nursing major!”  Normally athletes will have higher meal plans as compared to a full-time student at Morningside student who does not participates in sports.

Hannah Capps, a sophomore Political Science major, has a different schedule balancing school and her on campus job, along with Political Science functions for her classes. In balancing nutrition for herself, Hannah mentioned that what she knows about eating nutritious meals only affects her habits “sometimes.” 

Capps who is also on a meal plan has the 9 meals a week option. Being a non-athlete, it is presumed they have less swipes for the Caf because they don’t rely so heavily on having food prepared for them right after they come from a tiring practice. “I have a small meal plan because eating at the Caf sucks. I only eat there at least once a day, maybe twice depending on my mood.” Eating in or going out to other food options is a frequent option for Capps and other fulltime students. 

All students look for nutritious options when it’s provided by the campus, watching what they fuel into their bodies has a significant impact. Like Madisyn, Alex Borchers, senior point guard on the men’s basketball team, keeps in mind what he should be putting into his body. “Yeah, you know for an athlete,” Borchers began. “Optimal nutrition helps you perform well and it’s important to fuel what your body needs.” As a senior Borchers lives off campus so he doesn’t have a meal plan and prefers his meals from home. He mentioned he wouldn’t be able get the 30-40 grams of protein, fruits and veggie balance he strives to eat on a daily basis if he ate at the Caf.

As Madisyn pushes on a busy day with nursing clinical’s and practice, when she does eat lunch with her teammates she comments she always leaves hungrier because the food offered hadn’t satisfied her hunger. “Even when I do get to eat at the Caf, the options do not taste good.” As her options are limited due to time crunching, according to Madisyn she lives off bagels and cereal during the day. Nutritionists do not recommend that intake on a daily basis, even if options are limited. 

Borchers attempts the opposite since he lives off campus but still has a crazy time schedules as an athlete. “When I have a time crunch on a meal I always plan ahead. That’s a big struggle planning ahead when you know you don’t have time.” Both students demonstrate the difficult multitasking skills they need to have to get through day to day without mistreating their nutrition needs. 

Capps agrees it’s hard, yet it’s hard for all students to find their balance and health nutrition in a limited optioned space. 

There is no limit to what we as human beings can do; Alex Watters has proven to many that he has no limit. Alex Watters is a Career Development Specialist here at Morningside College, and many have seen him going around campus speaking of job opportunities for what would interest students most. Besides being so active on campus, Watters has different jobs around Sioux City as well. 

In his short life, Alex Watters has done amazing things and met inspirational people. Watters talked about how events in his life created the man people see today. He takes his first years from attending Morningside and applies to working with 1^styear students who aren’t sure about their path. “My life experiences helped me work with first year students because I knew what it felt like.” His placement in the city and connections to different organizations assist Watters in guiding students on their dream career paths. 

All this hard work, communication and perky attitude would be here at Morningside if he didn’t have a transformational readjustment of his life. He shares his story with an attitude most wouldn’t expect with the specific result he was left with. Watters attended Morningside College on a golf scholarship, mostly not caring for campus or classes, just golf and girls, he would often joke. One evening there was a dance in Olsen Student Center and he went. He can’t contain his laughter when he describes on how good of a dancer he was, he claimed he had “the moves.” It was announced there would be a dance competition and people would need to pair up, out of the corner of his eye he spotted a spunky girl like him giving all the moves. 

They danced and won the competition without trouble, while dancing they discovered they’re both from Okoboji. The young girl mentioned she was going back up that weekend for a family reunion and suggested Watters should come with her group of friends. Looking back Alex shrugged at the idea, “I thought yeah why not? My parents would be glad to see me again and I’d be hanging out with these cool girls.” His decision for a quick trip home would be the start to the path where he is today. 

After hanging out with his friends, having a good time by the campfire, the group voted it would be a good night to go for a swim in the lake. Watters and the little brother of one the girls waited along the dock while the girls changed. They were 150ft out on the dock when a sudden gush of wind blew the hat Alex was wearing in the water. Really liking that hat, in the spur of the moment, he dove in head first into 18-inch-deep water. 

Instantly he heard his neck snap, his body floated along the surface as he tried to coach himself to start swimming, start swimming. Only he couldn’t. He blacked out. The girls saved him and called the ambulance that would transport him to a helicopter lift to immediate surgery. Alex vividly remembers coming back to consciousness briefly and hearing the words from one the medics, “You really messed up.” Then he went back into the dark. His journey to the operating room was a path full of lows and lowers, for Alex couldn’t walk again. 

Surgery was a success and Watters was given the choice to be sent to a phenomenal recovery facility in Englewood, Colorado. In there he met other guys like him who made a spur of the moment choice and now were on the journey to having new lives. Watters said his time there was fun and he could connect with the atmosphere around him. 

His accident according to Watters helped development a man he never would become if he had not had his accident. It was asked of him, “Alex, if you’d never had your accident do you think you’d still be this politically active and task oriented as you are now?” With a snort he replied, “Not a chance in hell.” Before his accident he believed his life didn’t have direction, he wanted to be a golf coach as his first career choice; to professionally coach and teach people how to play. Since politics and community service were a huge part of his life growing up he could sort of see himself doing it but he wouldn’t be such an inspiration and leader if he hadn’t. 

Alex Watters has no limit to what he can do, and he’s proven time and time again you should do what you love to do. If you meet Alex he’s so in love with his jobs it’s almost scary. Having his accident didn’t slow him down at all, he still goes 100 miles an hour if he can. He’s everywhere helping people find their spark and succeed, at sports events cheering all athletes on, taking his duty on the city council seriously and pushing for change. Also, he has worked with the First Lady Michelle Obama herself. Who can say they did that in their lifetime? He’s been offered jobs in the U.S. Department of Education, graduated grad school with great honors. This man knows no limit he can reach, and he encourages every single student on Morningside Campus to reach high for what we want. The sky is the limit. 

How people describe how their food’s taste totally alters their experience having the treat/snack. Your feedback is then noted as a review and basically it makes your opinion real/valuable. 

How I describe how my food tastes is the “make or break” on if I would ever eat this food again. In class today, Fuglsang offered us candy orange slices, Snoballs, deviled eggs, vegetables, and Piroulines for us to eat and describe our experience. Since I’m picky I chose the Pirouline because I couldn’t make up my mind. Taking it out of it’s container I noticed the outside texture was bumpy but smooth. I brought it up to my nose to smell it and didn’t get a strong smell of chocolate which disappointed me because the inside appears to be chocolate filling. 

Finally tasting it I found this is just an average treat. The chocolate texture wasn’t as smooth, and the crunch from the outside left it a weird combination of texture. It was more like grainy mud on the inside of the straw treat. Sadly my Pirouline chocolate experience wasn’t as amazing as I thought.

All around Morningside you can hear certain conversations between friends, the topics vary all over. Only, the one topic that seems to occur more often all the time is the subject of eating/food.

For my story proposition I want to interview a variety of students who either live on or off campus, athlete or non athlete, and maybe a professor or coach. I think asking 3 people of these backgrounds would be able to provide useful information on:

– how much they think about food
– how much they buy at the store
– if they like eating off or on campus better
– how they like the food provided for them
– if they could change any option at the Cafe, what would it be?
– is eating with friends or alone better?
– how much they eat (depending if they’re an athlete)
– what they like to eat (not favorite food, what they have on hand in their rooms if they don’t live in a house off campus)

No one knew when the clock hit 11:00 o’clock this Thursday morning students in COMM 208 would have to get up and go up to random strangers questions for an assignment. Professor Fuglsang randomly let us pick our poison.

For me, my two items on the scavenger hunt list were asking someone a “knock knock” joke and to find a thick rubber band. When I read my list at first I thought, “What? This is stupid, who’s going to magically have a rubber band in the pocket?” Despite me begrudgingly having to run around campus and spring up to strangers, I went out on my quest.

As soon as I stepped out of the library I ambled around looking for anyone. My classmates who were ahead were already talking to stragling students, I thought my choices were thin. Turning around I spotted two girls. My legs raced over to them, vibrantly asking if they would tell me a “knock knock” joke.

The student I asked, Freshman Katie Murphy, grinned happily at the hurried request. Her friend walking with her chuckled, “What a perfect person to ask!”

Katie stood for a moment or so searching her brain for a good one to share. Obviously so many things were rushing in her mind, she anxiously pulled on her hoodie that read “Morningside Softball.”

I stood with a smile waiting and taking notes on the situation. Katie resorted to looking at her phone for the perfect joke. Her friend kept laughing at her as she searched the internet. In the process of the joke escapade I asked if one of them had a thick rubber band. Sadly they said no, which bummed me out, so that meant I’d have to run around more to find it.

“We’re just going to wing it,” Katie sighed giving up. She smiled and shared her joke.

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” I replied.

“Cash.”

“Cash Who?”

She snorted, “No thanks, I’ll have peanuts!”

My mind drew a complete blank trying to connect the dots. When I did it was an aha! moment. The girls laughed and said their goodbyes as I thanked them.

From then on I ran in my Birkenstocks up to random people demanding if they had a thick rubber band. Many stared at me like I lost my mind, which I did because time was ticking down before we had to return and write our experience.

After 3 attempts I peered to my right and saw the Krone Advising Center. Pushing for time I ripped open the door to see Shari Benson behind her desk.

She barely glimpsed at me before assuming I as apart of the scavenger hunt. I nodded eagerly asking her if they had that stupid thick rubber band.

Shari gasped, “Ohhh!” She sprang from her chair going into someone’s office. With a hoot and a holler she came out holding one.

“You’re lucky today,” She exclaimed

I thanked her properly and said my goodbye to Katie Roskie and Shari who wished me luck and gave some ideas on how to describe my experience.

So my experience is flying off the seam of your pants for an interview is hard but exciting at the same time.

Body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders tag with athletes and young women who are stereotyped to be the only groups suffering from body issues. 

Young adults in this generation are tagged with the label of eating disorders, and body image obsession. A book called, “The Hidden Faces of Eating Disorders and Body Image.” the stereotypes attached to this generation breaks down and investigates the subjects that cross over on the topic of body image. Subjects such as ethnicity, age and gender. People who fall into the categories are normally those who end up seeing specialists for this particular area. 

It’s unfair that young adults are assumed to have body issues based on their body types and their heritage. Assuming someone should have an exotic body type because they’re from or descended from a Pacific Islander because a person on Instagram has a “perfect” body type and is from/descended from the Pacific Islands as an example. 

A research study by Jennifer Mills and Jaqueline Hogue have researched the effects social media has on body image and impact on young women in the journal, Body Image. Their experiment divided 118 female undergraduates, having their first group log into Facebook or Instagram for 5 minutes, asking them to find a peer around their age and decide if they were more “attractive” than themselves. In the control group, the women did the same thing, but had to leave a comment on a post of a family member they did not consider more “attractive” than themselves.

The tests showed that the women left/showed they were dissatisfied with their bodies more when comparing their appearance with a peer. 

When young adults are dissatisfied with their appearance or athleticism, most would resort to dieting plans and exercise activities to “achieve” a body appearance social media/society will accept as a “good body.” 

Diet plans include calorie tracker apps that are supposed to “increase body awareness” for an individual who is trying to lose weight. Tens of millions of people use this method to manage weight, set weight loss goals and log their calorie intake. BBC has investigated calorie counting app users of MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and Lifesum who would post disturbing content on the apps as they updated their food logs for the day. 

Phrases such as “I overate and I hate my life” or “starved” after going over 1 kcal of their meal. Lots of these hostile feelings posted on these apps were by the thousands. Anything “over” or “too full” was considered a red flag. It’s been in people’s minds they can’t enjoy regular foods or eat to sustain their strength. 

User of an app such as these, Jack Henderson said using his calorie tracking app allowed his eating disorder to spiral out of his hands. “…it really fed into this false warped illusion of control that I was in control–but it was controlling me.” This obsession drives millions of young adults over the edge. The fact they based it off of social media and their peers develops long term mental issues. Many people have been referred to therapy but don’t want to go because they either think they’re fine and that it’s normal on the journey of weight loss or they perceive that they are crazy in their peer’s eyes. 

Treatment for new generations should be that they’re educated on how to use social media and how it’s used to make them feel about themselves. In any class, store, car there are people self-conscious about their body image and how they look to other people; if they could have the extra effort of awareness from professionals anything and everything would help.

Reaching out to the young generation, identifying their dilemma would show them they could be linked to stringent dieting, eating disorders, or excessive exercise. Those who are extremely vulnerable to this body image exposure expectation are constantly triggered by social media content. It’s natural people want what others have, some go the extra distance to get it but losing themselves with it.