IU Dining started a partnership with Grubhub this semester to make eating on campus more efficient. The service allows students to order food using the Grubhub app and check wait times at dining facilities around campus.
However, it's not enough to make up for how IU Dining has failed to meet students' dietary needs. Without a variety of nearby food options for students with dietary restrictions, IU Dining’s offerings often remain inaccessible or inconsistent.
This failure is most evident in the northwest neighborhood of campus, where Briscoe Quad and Gresham Eatery are located. The lack of variety and healthy options for dining at Gresham, paired with the distance of a 15-minute walk from Briscoe to Wright Eatery, the second closest dining hall, makes the northwest neighborhood feel like a food desert.
The Grubhub service does not offer delivery. IU Dining's executive director Rahul Shrivastav told the Indiana Daily Student last week that delivery options would be offered if there is demand for it.
However, delivery using Grubhub would likely cost students additional fees. Grubhub charges restaurants a commission for delivery, according to its website, which students who order from Grubhub may end up paying. For students who have less access to reliable food options at IU, whether due to distance from dining halls or dietary restrictions, having to pay delivery fees would feel unfair.
The Grubhub partnership came at a time when many students, such as freshman Kaitlyn Ross, who lives in Briscoe and is gluten intolerant, relied upon food options in the Indiana Memorial Union food court, which closed in December for renovations.
Ross is disappointed in the poor gluten-free options at Gresham, and it’s often difficult for her to tell which foods are safe to eat.
“After the closing of the dining hall in the IMU, it’s been harder to find gluten-free options,” she said.
Now, she has to check every eatery’s menu and then NetNutrition, IU Dining's online tool for finding allergen and nutritional information, to see which eateries have gluten-free food that day. She said she wishes there was a gluten-free zone or at least consistent options.
Even though online tools like NetNutrition exist, Ross said due to her personal experiences with mislabeled foods at IU, she feels she can’t trust the listed nutrition labels.
Implemented well, Grubhub’s technology can help students like Ross find the best menus for gluten-free dining. However, browsing the Grubhub app only confirmed Ross’ frustrations about limited and inconsistent options.
Besides a gluten-free cheese pizza at Wright, gluten-free entrees sold by IU Dining could not be found by an Indiana Daily Student opinion writer using the Grubhub app.
Freshman Sam Waterman said some students have become sick after eating from the Gresham salad bar and claims the poor selections contributed to her developing an iron deficiency last semester. Waterman, who has no special dietary needs, started to feel weak and shaky despite still eating fruits and vegetables.
“I went to the IU Health Center and was told to eat fruits and vegetables that couldn’t be found at Gresham,” Waterman said. She was able to find more options at Wright than at Briscoe.
On-campus vegan options are similarly limited. Freshman Laura Stancato is a vegan and said she feels her dietary needs are not entirely being met by IU.
“The salad bar at Gresham is closed on the weekends, but things did improve with the addition of Sakura Sushi, but even then I still only eat three of the same meals throughout a week,” Stancato said.
She said her favorite place for vegan options on campus is at Collins, where they have a daily vegan option that changes nearly every day. However, even this great option is limited because the dinner buffet is only open Monday through Thursday 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The Grubhub app can show students where vegan foods are served, but only IU Dining can lengthen hours to make them available to students throughout campus
“Since this month is Veganuary, IU should follow in the footsteps of some Bloomington businesses because the demand for vegan food is probably much higher than they think it is,” Stancato said.
Veganuary is a campaign started by a British nonprofit organization of the same name that hopes to convince more people to switch to a plant-based diet this month and throughout the year.
It's true that the Grubhub app allows students to spend less time waiting in lines and searching for food. IU Dining has taken one step forward, but it remains behind in terms of addressing the nutritional needs of students.
Ian Nowlin (he/him) is a sophomore studying law and public policy. He has minors in Spanish and Arabic.
