Healthy Dining Location Opens on Campus

Karen Kanyike

Recently, students have been complaining about the limited options for healthy food on campus. Many students want something other than pizza and sandwiches for their daily meals. So, how can they gain access to healthier food options at no extra cost? In order to cater to students’ needs, Manchester University opened its fifth dining outlet on March 11.

The Green Bowl, located behind the Jo Young Switzer Center, serves fresh fruit and vegetable salads to students, faculty, staff and visitors. The exterior of the restaurant takes on the form of a green leaf-shaped salad bowl with a variety of colorful fruit and vegetables acting as the roof. The interior is plastered with large pictures of the different kinds of salads the restaurant serves.

The salad preparation area is split into two sections: the fruit prep station and the vegetable prep station and the lobby is filled with bright green and red booths. The restaurant servers are required to wear special costumes inspired by their respective areas of specialization, for instance, the people who work in the fruit prep station have to wear fruit costumes. The same is true for those working in the vegetable prep station. Donations from parents, alumni and well-wishers funded the building of the outlet.

Sambo Amaza, a sophomore economics major and information systems minor from Jos, Nigeria, will start working for the Green Bowl in fall 2016 and is quite excited about his new position. “I feel honored to be a part of the team promoting healthy living within the Manchester community,” he said. “The foods served here are farm-fresh, highly nutritious and delicious. I hope everyone gets a chance to try out what we have to offer.” He will be working in the fruit prep station.

A few other students on campus do not share Amaza’s view of the food. Curtis Stump, a sophomore pharmacy major from Boggstown, Ind., had mixed feelings about the restaurant and its food. “When I heard that there was a new dining outlet on campus, I was so excited,” he said. “However, I was shocked to find that the outlet lacked sauces and the food itself was disgusting!”

As you enter the restaurant, there is a large dry erase board bearing information about the weekly specials and right beside it is a suggestion box where customers can provide feedback and tips on how to improve the restaurant. The salads do not come with the usual condiments such as ranch sauce or other kinds of salad dressing as the outlet strives to serve just plain salad, a blaring deviation from what most restaurants do.

To celebrate its opening, the Green Bowl hosted a grand fruit and vegetable salad dinner on March 13. Students, faculty and staff were invited to be a part of the festivities, which consisted of rotten fruit and vegetable salads.

Bolanle Oladokun, a junior Communication Studies major from Indianapolis, Ind., was one of the disappointed guests who attended the event. She recalled what went through her mind when a plate of rotten fruit salad was handed to her. “I thought it was extremely horrid,” she remarked. “It’s pretty ridiculous that the school cannot follow the agenda of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and her campaign for fresh fruit and healthy living!”