The balancing act

Student Alyssa Dondes displays a fridge full of frozen meals. Photo by: Katie VandenHeuvel

When students get to college who is to blame for not knowing how to cook. Is it the parent or the student’s fault for empty stomachs and expensive fast food habits? Listen to this story about who’s to blame.

College years present many difficult challenges. While there are obvious challenges like how to get all your work done, challenges like what to feed yourself every night can cause difficulty if you aren’t sure how to cook. Junior, Alyssa Dondes often struggles with that situation.
Actuality:
“When I was younger my parents just never really gave me cooking lessons and I never asked and they never seemed to care. So now I’m suffering in college because I don’t really know how to make anything, all I do is make Stouffers and Lean Cuisines and sandwiches for dinner”

However, Towson University’s district chef Chris Shoul believes the parents are not solely to blame
Actuality:

“Uh it’s probably a little bit of both, it as the kids are in the young stages it’s on the parents to just force themselves to sit down teach kids. Well I think it has a lot to do with society, how our lives are led these days. We’re such in a rush; we’ve got so many things going on. Cooking is meant to be a bonding experience, a gathering and we don’t have much time for that.”
Incoming students might be able to change this pattern thanks to a program that’s in the works designed to show students how easy it is to cook.
Actuality:
“We’ve been talking with University Residence Life in trying to get a program started for juniors and seniors who are moving off campus and teach them the basics of cooking, what they should have in their kitchens, the equipment and some quick dishes so they’re not so intimidated.”

Not only would this program be helpful to students while at school but it could also help them after they graduate.
Actuality:
“I would definitely go to it because I feel like I don’t know enough things when I get out of college to survive”

While there may not be one specific person to blame, I think its clear that all students should know cooking basics in order to help themselves eat healthier at school. And maybe if they learn easy, simple, meals freezers will become more empty and stomachs more full.