College rankings website Niche has released its annual list of the colleges that have the top food. This year’s rankings were based on meal plan costs and student reviews. Here’s a look at the schools who made it to the top 10.
The dining program at The Ohio State University is made up of 35 dining locations. Students can purchase meals on campus via Grubhub and even have their food delivered to them by one of the school’s delivery robots.
This fall, the team has introduced a new online menu system that allows students to see all the menu ingredients and allergen information for meals served on campus.
The dining team is known for its weekly Fried Chicken Thursdays where they serve fried chicken at the school’s Commons Dining Hall.
Most of the meals served on campus are scratch-made and feature local ingredients. Students are also able to find a range of gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian to meet their dietary needs.
7. University of California Irvine; Irvine, California
The dining team at the University California Irvine hosts several Wiping Out Waste events throughout the year to educate students about how they can minimize food waste and the importance of doing so.
Ingredients used in many of the meals on campus are sourced locally, including from the school’s hydroponic garden.
Bates College students are treated to a handful of dining events each month through the dining team’s Adventures in Dining series. This year, the dining program also made the top 10 list in The Princeton Review’s annual Best College Food rankings.
At Mean Greens Café, the nation’s first 100% vegan dining hall, students will find a range of plant-based meals, including tomato mushroom curry and carrot gnocchi.
Many of the produce used in the meals comes from the dining team’s freight farm which was installed on campus in 2016.
The dining team partners with 25 local farms to receive fresh ingredients to use in campus meals. They also compost over 170 tons of food scraps each year.
At Barnhart Dining Hall, students can enjoy an all-you-care-to-eat brunch on the weekends.
10 college dining programs that students say have top-notch food
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1. University of California Los Angeles; Los Angeles
Coming out on top, the dining program at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) offers students three all-you-care-to-eat residential restaurants on campus that offer as many as 10 different entrée options daily.
The dining team places a large focus on sustainability and has pledged to reaching or exceeding a minimum of25% sustainable food and beverage purchases by 2030
The food service team at the Willits, California hospital relies on good communication to provide patients and visitors with a variety of plant-forward, farm-to-fork meals.
Amy Stocking and her husband Dan made the move from Detroit to a family blueberry farm in Michigan’s Thumb region and have become a vital part of the community there.
