hi friends, I hope this post finds you well :)
I am a big foodie, love eating, love experimenting with cooking, and love trying new foods.
ONCAMPUS DINING:
Throughout my fall semester on campus I signed up for the standard meal plan (14 meals per week & sum number of flex points). I assume that fellow students know and understand the meal plan and flex point system, but for any new folks who are newly committed or interested in LC the meal plan speaks for itself. So in terms of the meal plan, everything is straightforward, walking in the dining hall (Templeton) swipe your ID and go on to get your food. Some folks sit inside the dining area, but there are also other places to dine like the Trail Room, Stamm, benches, dorms, etc.
Students are allowed to choose from various meal plan options, and then flex points are a certain amount of money (for ex: $250) that you’re able to use at either cafes, which include Maggie’s & The Dovecote (something cool about flex points is in a given school year the points can carry on from fall to spring semester, but not from spring to new school year fall semester). From personal experience, I really enjoy both cafe’s, they’re well placed on opposite ends of campus. A little more info about the cafe’s: The Dovecote is near the academic building (actually right in front of the theatre department), it is primarily open early in the mornings and closes early afternoon. I think my roommates and I took trips down to the cafe to get breakfast sandwiches and coffee. They also have various pastries, candies, and treats. Something also very beautiful about the cafe is that there’s a small courtyard that is open, spacious and folks hang around and do homework or chat. Maggie’s is near the residence halls, it opens at around 3:00pm and closes at 10:00pm. The amount of late night trips to that cafe my roommates and I took were like mini adventures, walking around the dark campus to get snacks and get ready for movie night or all nighters. This cafe has a larger variety of foods, snacks, and small groceries- from ice cream to cereal to candies to coffee and more.
In terms of more food options, many students including myself travel to Freddy’s- our local grocery store through the PIO (LC BUS) essentially to buy groceries and make meals back at the dorms. All dorms basically come with kitchens, so there’s probably always a student making some meal at random times throughout the nights.
OFF-CAMPUS DINING:
My absolute favorite! For those wondering how you get downtown especially whilst living on a budget- the PIO makes trips into town and if you go with the flow type person, you can explore the area and find somewhere to eat. In terms of how you get back, there are local buses and bus stops scattered around downtown that will help get you back to campus, or others take UBER. Me, I love going downtown to grab something to eat with friends. This is a perfect opportunity to get off campus and be around a different environment. Sometimes it’s unexpected and spontaneous, and others times we have little date nights planned. There were times where my friends and I would get takeout, here we got takeout. The first time I had Thai food was on campus. These were more spontaneous moments when we wanted/needed a break from campus food and we’d get together in the common room of AKIN at like 11pm and eat dinner.
For me, getting together with friends and having dinner or making dinner is such a fun, personal and intimate experience. I remember the amount of times my roommates and I would go get weekend brunch & dinner or weekday lunch & dinner (because we rarely got breakfast) and come back to the dorms or common room and just eat in the same space. A space where people are excited to eat, have good company, definitely share stories and continue getting to know each other. At this end, I hope folks have some more knowledge about what dining on campus and off campus is like. AND if you’re able have fun and explore restaurants downtown; support local & small businesses!