US: The award for best campus food goes to …

11 Aug 2017

University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass Amherst), according to the Princeton Review’s latest rankings “Best 382 Colleges,” has topped the “Best Campus Food” category second year in a row.

According to USA Today College, the Boston school touts on its website the US$69 million dining programme as “healthy, flavourful, world cuisine” using fresh and sustainable ingredients. Sushi is the most popular at this school, where staff prepare 4,000 sushi rolls daily.

This is why we are number 1! #UMass @UMassDining #Amherst pic.twitter.com/3QlGPIRF9a

— Charles Walker (@CoachCBW) August 4, 2017

“Dining services on campus are incredibly important to daily student life,” says Princeton Review editor-in-chief Rob Franek.

“Dining services help students in undergraduate education by allowing them to create and maintain a healthy and sustainable diet in college, while giving them the knowledge to do the same once they graduate.”

Food at UMass Amherst is the first campus food in the country to be SPE-Certified, showing its commitment to “nutrition, sustainability and importantly, its customers’ well-being”.

Boston Globe reports while students there love the food, they wished it wasn’t expensive. Lunch paid with cash at the dining commons costs US$11.25 while dinner is US$14.25, its website states, though there are options to pay via meal plans and “dining dollars” as well.

Bowdoin College and Washington University in St. Louis came in at second and third place, respectively.

Korean Bibimbop, a student favorite from the display table will be on the General Line tonight at Moulton! pic.twitter.com/UO1XEeXEEq

— Bowdoin Dining (@BowdoinDining) April 19, 2016

USA Today College notes Washington converts its fryer waste oil into biofuel and does not use plastic bags, scoring top points for sustainability. Bowdoin isn’t too shabby either, as students there get to enjoy fresh juices and smoothies, as part of the school’s focus on locally-sourced food.

“Campus dining has come a very long way in the last 20 years, (and) current college students profit daily from those great advances,” Franek said.