By: Tanoy Biswas
As students continue to grind out their schoolwork at McMaster University, the newest hot food and beverage café on campus, the Grind, is just beginning its service to the university population.
The McMaster Student Union vice president (Finance), Daniel “Tuba” D’Souza, along with other MSU staff members, collaborated to address the lack of quick and affordable hot food on campus through the café.
“The initial proposal for the café was made back in May 2017 when the new student union board of directors officially stepped into office Through working with the Student Representative Assembly, the TwelvEighty management team and Facility Services we approved a budget to hire an architect managed the construction project, and built the café,” said D’Souza.
The MSU took a methodical approach when planning the café to ensure that it offered more affordable food options on campus. In the summer of 2017, the MSU consulted with facility services and student focus groups to get a better understanding of the kind of food items that satisfy a student appetite.
“As we receive more input from students during the soft launch we can further craft the menu to meet the expectations of students for quick, affordable, healthy food.”
Daniel D’Souza
MSU vice president (Finance)
“The price of food in the café was designed with affordability in mind. The café offers a range of crepes at different price points depending on what a student is able to afford,” said D’Souza.
Located in the basement of the student centre right next to TwelvEighty, the Grind offers sweet and savoury crepes ranging from $3.99 to $9.99, and hot caffeinated beverages including mochas, cappuccinos and more ranging from $1.50 to $3.00.
“Our prices were based on over 70 anonymous feedback forms we received during our trial period where students were able to write down what price they would pay for the crepe that they received,” D’Souza said.
“As we receive more input from students during the soft launch we can further craft the menu to meet the expectations of students for quick, affordable, healthy food,” he added.
Additionally, the MSU conducted research for the ideal design features students prefer in a café, which included lighting, seating arrangements, power outlets and the overall aesthetic design.
Construction of the café occurred during the first semester of the 2017-2018 school year and the hiring and training of staff along with the branding of the establishment was finalized in the first half of January 2018.
The café was built in the existing space of TwelvEighty but it is its own entity. The staff of the new establishment includes a few employees from TwelvEighty but the majority of workers are new hires.
The employees were trained by a specialist to learn how to operate the new machinery needed to make espresso and its associated drinks. Additionally, chefs from the TwelvEighty staff trained new employees on how to make crepes for the café.
Inside the Grind, the layout includes multiple seating spaces in a well-lit area to accommodate a variety of uses such as studying or more casual uses.
The Grind has held limited runs throughout January meant for some MSU staff members to give feedback. The soft launch was held on Jan. 29, and the grand opening is expected to be in February after the reading week break.
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TwelvEighty, the McMaster Students Union-owned restaurant located in the basement of the McMaster University Student Centre, is now in service for the school year. But the Marauder's Nest, the café that will sit where the lounge area in TwelvEighty used to be, remains under construction.
In a report that D’Souza wrote to the Student Representative Assembly on June 14, entitled “1280 Café Capital Allocation,” D’Souza anticipated the TwelvEighty café to have its “official launch” in Sept. 2017.
Then, in Aug. 2017, in a report to the Silhouette, D’Souza stated that this date has been pushed back to the end of October. However, after the MSU hired an architect and project manager to spearhead the development of the café in late Aug. 2017, the café’s official launch date was pushed back even further.
“After consultations with the project manager we decided to instead act as the general contractor for this project and directly hire external or internal sub- contractors to carry out separate parts of the project. This would save us a large amount of funds but would ultimately lengthen the construction timeline to end of Oct. (as previously communicated to the SRA at the last meeting) to limit liability,” Daniel Tuba D’Souza, vice president (Finance) of the MSU wrote in a report to the Student Representative Assembly on Aug. 30.
According to D’Souza, after hiring the architect and project manager, the MSU had to modify the timeline for the Marauder's Nest construction schedule.
“We worked closely with the Architect and Construction team to ensure that we were getting the most value from our budget, prioritizing getting it done well and using the allocated funding effectively over rushing the construction phase,” D’Souza said.
A few months after the originally proposed launch date, Marauder's Nest is set to be operational by the end of the semester.
The café is being established, in part, to increase food accessibility on campus. Marauder's Nest will offer students coffee, tea and lunch foods, including wraps, toasted paninis and bagel sandwiches, at prices that are more affordable than La Piazza, Starbucks and the TwelvEighty Bar & Grill, but less affordable than Union Market.
“This new café will be a unique and exciting space for students to hang out and study while indulging in the best-valued food and caffeinated beverages on campus. We worked with an incredibly talented Architect who has designed some of the most popular cafes and restaurants in Hamilton and are excited to unveil the space to students upon its completion,” D’Souza said.
“I am very excited about the enhanced capacity, service offerings and value that this new café and lounge space will provide to students.”
Admidst construction, the café will not open in the near future. Although students can look forward to Marauder's Nest affordability, should they wish to eat lunch in the MUSC, for a while, students will have to stick with their preferred but more expensive lunch spot.
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By: Prarthana Bhat
Every month of the academic year, I find myself attempting to create an ideal meal plan where my main focus would be cooking a wide spread of high nutritional value lunches and dinners. The reality is that convenience holds a higher priority than the quality of the meals consumed. Being a full-time student who is constantly aiming to achieve a balance amongst academics and dietary preferences, convenient food attractions such as La Piazza or Centro have resulted in a deficit in my health and my wallet.
The aforementioned eateries alongside other alternatives across the map provide appealing menus for their everyday meals in terms of convenience. However, as a concerned and motivated health activist, these food options do not fulfill the nutritional requirements for an average person.
La Piazza is a sustainable and inclusive food system with several booths that cater to the fast-paced lifestyle of students. Referring to the menu hoisted up at Creation X, I noticed a classic take on the “all-American diet,” which includes items such as hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken fingers. Most of these advertised items are mainly processed and contain a high volume of sodium, trans fats and calories. Students who prefer to indulge in a well-balanced diet are told that they would be accommodated for, but examples like these demonstrate that the food services on campus are not upholding their side of the deal.
While we have some access to fresh produce through Mac Farmstand, they are only present from June to October. A viable solution to this dilemma would be for the various cafeterias on campus to collaborate with Mac Farmstand more often to access fresh produce supplied by local farmers. Access to local vegetables would lead to fresh meals prepared daily, which are not preserved and served with accordance to Canada’s Food Guidelines.
Hopefully in the upcoming years, we will notice a positive change in the food options available on campus that will sponsor a hearty way of life and serve an end to our love affairs with fast foods.
At Trent University, a student-led non-profit vegetarian initiative called the Seasoned Spoon is a prime example of how we can promote and enforce a healthier lifestyle and environment on school grounds. Along with preparing fresh meals, the Seasoned Spoon hosts weekly culinary classes to guide students through a path of healthy eating and cooking. They also upload recipes of prepared dishes on their website, making it accessible to students who rely on independent cooking on day-to-day basis. A full café might be excessive budget-wise, but the other objectives of the initiative seem obtainable enough as part of a new or existing service.
The Good Food Box, initiated by McGill University and included in Chukky Ibe’s presidential platform, is another source of inspiration that McMaster should be paying attention to.
Ibe proposed cooperation between Mac Bread Bin and Mac Farmstand to hand deliver grocery boxes of various sizes to student households around McMaster in order to reduce the number of trips a regular off-campus student makes to the grocery store.
With so many opportunities and options available, the university and McMaster Students Union should push past the variety of content available on campus and aim to be a healthier and flourishing unit.
Hopefully in the upcoming years, we will notice a positive change in the food options available on campus that will sponsor a hearty way of life and serve an end to our love affairs with fast food.
Survival of the fittest can be a skewed term. In apocalyptic scenarios, common methods of endurance tend to favour the idea of burly men cutting down trees, sowing and gathering seeds, and the inevitable hunting of animals. Although meat may seem like an element of a balanced diet and a necessity for survival, recent studies have proven that vegetarianism may be the way to go.
Research completed at Loma Linda University in California has proved that, on average, vegetarians had a 12 percent reduced risk of death from any possible health-related scenario as opposed to meat-eaters, who all appeared to be looking down the barrel of death.
In line with this research, five McMaster students share their veg*n stories and prove that following a meat-free diet can be a beneficial and accessible change.
Veg*ns on Campus
Second-year Electrical Engineering student Michael Podlovics chose to make the move to meatless when he started university. “When I was planning on living away from my parents, I realized that moving out was a chance to build my own lifestyle,” he explained. Podlovics has now transitioned to veganism and is still rooted in his initial cause for making the change. “The biggest concern I had, and still have, with the industry is the staggering environmental impacts and ethical issues associated with industrial production of livestock.”
A commonly overlooked trait of the food industry is that meat production doesn’t rely solely on animals that are born and raised naturally in farm settings. Livestock production and harvesting is a huge industry that uses valuable natural resources and fossil fuels to mass raise and transport animals that are born to be turned into meals. It’s both an environmental and ethical issue that resonates with many turned veg*ns.
“After opening up my eyes to the reality [of meat production], I knew that being vegan was the right choice for me,” explained Tori Jelilyan, a second-year Health Science student and a vegan since May 2013.
Both third-year Multimedia student Rebecca Annibale and fourth-year Philosophy and Multimedia student Mathew Towers made the transition to vegetarianism when they were in the tenth grade.
“The main reason I decided to become a vegetarian was the disdain I felt towards eating meat; not only did I find it not appetizing, but I found it unethical as well,” explained Towers.
Meg Peters, a fourth-year English and Arts & Science student, is also one of the presidents of the McMaster Veggie Club. Peters became a vegetarian at age 12, and a vegan at age 13. For almost a decade now, she has been devoted to maintaining her diet and has used knowledge of the practice to spread its pros and cons with the McMaster community.
Accessibility at McMaster
“Bridges is a godsend for veg*ns trying to eat on campus,” added Peters.
The on-campus vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurant has been run in collaboration with Diversity Services since 2005. The café also contributed to McMaster being ranked as a top veg*n friendly campus through the “peta2” list (a branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in 2006 and 2007.
Bistro, or East meets West, has also been noted as a great campus spot for veg*n friendly cuisine as it easily makes substitutes for ingredients.
“A nice new addition to campus has been the Mac Farmstand in the summer and fall, which has started serving up wonderful fresh and local salads,” said Jelilyan.
Although McMaster has definitely proved itself to be a veg*n friendly campus, there is room for improvement to make it more inclusive for all dietary concerns.
“One of the main problems that I have heard from a lot of veg*n students at Mac is the lack of transparency on campus with respect to ingredients,” said Peters.
As tasty as Mac’s vegetarian and vegan options are, many of the servers that deal directly with the students are not well informed on the contents of dishes being made and served. The Veggie Club is looking into fixing this problem by developing a sticker system that would involve labels being placed next to campus foods that are veg*n or can be modified.
Common Misconceptions about Meatless
“The biggest struggle of being a vegetarian is gaining understanding from others, and constantly having to justify our choices,” said Towers.
Identifying as veg*n often leads to associations with pushy beliefs and an otherwise “hipster” culture.
“Sometimes I feel when I tell someone I'm a vegetarian/vegan they instantly assume I'm the leader of an animal rights protest who is going to push my beliefs of vegan-ism on them and everyone I meet,” explained Annibale.
Veg*nism is a lifestyle choice that is often rooted in ethical beliefs and environmental and societal concerns. With negative ideas surrounding their choices, sometimes the true reasons for their beliefs can get clouded in misconceptions about neighboring cultural patterns.
Another common misunderstanding is that veg*nism does not provide enough nutrients to sustain an active lifestyle.
“I have noticed no visible hindrance in my athletic or academic performance. I have actually noticed improvement due to being overall more conscious of my diet and nutrient intake,” explained Podlovics, whose recent veganism and yearlong vegetarianism has yet to affect his athletic performance in recreational sports.
“After substituting plant-based foods for meat, I can honestly say that I feel healthier, more energetic, and I actually have been getting sick less often,” added Jelilyan.
If a veg*n diet is maintained thoughtfully, it can include the same amount of protein as a diet including meat.
Considering a variety of veg*n?
“Should students consider a meatless diet? I say yes! Meat causes more emissions than all transportation combined. But if you're not into binary solutions, just minimize the amount of meat you consume,” said Annibale.
“And as an added bonus for students, meat is expensive and I have found that going vegan has even left me with more money in the bank,” noted Jelilyan.
With a campus that has proved to work for other veg*ns and has been noted as a progressive school in terms of its food diversity, McMaster may be a great place to taste test veg*nism.
“There’s a strong community of veg*ns at Mac,” said Peters.
Keep in mind though that becoming veg*n isn’t a decision you should make overnight. It is a thoughtful diet that requires planning and understanding. The more restrictions you choose to make, the more difficult it will be to accommodate your diet. Look into the various types of veg*nism that exist and choose the right one for you and your lifestyle.
Going veg*n can have a positive impact on your health, the environment, and the ethical treatment of animals. And when it comes to the game of survival of the fittest, you may just come out on top.
