Surviving a Week on Free Food

A favorite phrase among college students is “free food.”

This is not surprising. The Washington Post reported last year that the phenomenon of “food insecurity” is on the rise on college campuses. As of 2014, 121 campuses had their own food banks.

What would it be like to try to survive with no food budget for a week? I decided to give it a try.

Scrolling through TechAnnounce, I typically see key words such as “meal,” “pizza,” “snacks” or “refreshments,” framing the meeting and event listings. The idea is that if you want college students to actually attend an event, enticing them with free food is a safe bet.

As a senior at Texas Tech, I can attest to the success of this approach. A food budget is almost a second thought after paying for tuition, overpriced textbooks, parking, housing and utilities. (So if there is a lecture with an interesting keynote speaker AND baked goods, I’ll be there.)

While planning for this experiment, I created a list of rules: I could attend school events and other social situations where free food might be found, but outright telling people aboout my plan in hopes of getting a lunch from a friend was strictly off limits.

My one concession, though, was unlimited coffee. It happened to be a busy week, between classes and my work schedule. I could foresee a few late nights and didn’t think I could detox from my caffeine routine on a (possibly) empty stomach.

Monday (Donuts, a hot dog and chips, and pizza)

Beginning bright and early Monday morning, I told The Hub@TTU staff about my meal plan for the week at our budget meeting while chowing down on donuts my managing editor, Sarah Self-Walbrick, had brought for everyone.

Incredulous and entertained looks accompanied my announcement, followed shortly by well-wishes. After polishing off a chocolate and a glazed donut—don’t judge, I didn’t know when my next meal would be—I set out to scout for food opportunities for the rest of the week.

TechAnnounce became my informant as I scanned descriptions. Often, I would become hopeful upon seeing the word “free” but then find it coupled with “gift card” or “t-shirt.”

To kick off homecoming week, free lunch was promised in the Student Union Building (SUB) at noon.

With only a scan of my student ID, I was allowed into the SUB Ballroom. Public relations employees circled the room and photographed a scattering of students accepting foil-wrapped hot dogs, a personal bag of chips and pink lemonade. The fight song awkwardly played in the background.

Although I was not starving yet, I decided to eat lunch, simply because I did not know if dinner would be in the cards. Ketchup and mustard packages were stacked to dress up the plain dogs, and I opted for Lay’s potato chips instead of nacho cheese-flavored Doritos. Bonus: I got a free shirt, too.

Luckily, later that day I also found a place to eat dinner.

In room 113 of the chemistry building, Domino’s pizza and soda were served to attendees of the American Chemical Society meeting at 6 p.m.

The Periodic Table of Elements was staring down at me from wall posters on both sides of the room as I selected a pepperoni slice, a cheese slice and a Dr. Pepper. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I felt as though the other students in the room could tell I was not a science major—that I didn’t belong.

To my astonishment, I signed in on a sheet of white printer paper, along with the others, and no one questioned my presence. I politely listened to announcements about the club’s upcoming charities and demonstrations, such as plans to volunteer at the Morris Safe House, a sanctuary for homeless dogs, and mandatory safety training to participate on the “demo team” for chemistry displays.

By the end of the brief meeting, I considered Monday a success but knew it was just the beginning of a long school week.

Tuesday (A cookie and a brownie, a donut and a sandwich, and Mexican food)

Tuesday proved to be less advantageous in finding free food.

For breakfast, I ate leftovers from the Hub’s Sunday workshop. Specifically, this was a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie found in tupperware on the round meeting table. It’s not gross to eat two-day-old snacks, right? At least it didn’t taste gross…

Later that day, during a break in my block of classes from 11 a.m. to 4:50 p.m., I snuck back into the office to grab one of the remaining plain, glazed donuts from the Monday meeting.

I had hoped to attend a Catholic dinner at a local church I discovered on the emailed bulletin, but one of my jobs conflicted with the meal. Instead, after shooting a high school volleyball game for the local newspaper, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, just outside of town in Wolfforth, I responded to my mother’s texts about coming over to eat dinner.

Both of my parents grew up on farms in southwestern Oklahoma. Habit for them dictates cooking a very large amount of food, then eating the leftovers for a few days.

Admittedly, I first thought of this as a “cop out.” But I then realized: If you still live close to home, eating with your parents once every week or two is a common experience for college students.

And hey, I didn’t have to pay.

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Famished from a long day, I crafted a chicken salad sandwich and reheated chicken quesadillas and a couple of taquitos. But I did not get far into the meal before realizing I wasn’t as hungry as I had initially thought and could eat only about half the meal.

Wednesday (Cookies, tamales, and candy and chicken)

I hate to admit it, but my Wednesday breakfast consisted of two cookies still sitting in the The Hub office from the workshop. (I finished off the last of the communal snacks.) This time, I believe they were snickerdoodle cookies.

Fortunately, just a few hours later, Tamale Fest 2015 set up a tent right outside the College of Media & Communication building.

Hosted by Cru, a Christian organization present on many college campuses, the lunch offered tamales, chips and salsa, and bottled water. The only request for attendees was to text “TAMALE15” to 85005 and take a religious survey in return. My survey link on the text message I received would never load, but I decided I had given it a fair effort and ate their tamales, despite not being able to respond.

That afternoon, I stopped by my father’s accounting office to take care of some insurance paperwork from a car accident I was in last semester. Of course, I helped myself to some of his candy.

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In the evening, Tech Voice, a political panel for a variety of parties and interest groups, such as the Tech Student Democrats and the Young Conservatives of Texas at Texas Tech, hosted a gathering in the Matador Room of the SUB. Some wore Hillary Clinton shirts, others had Bernie Sanders stickers.

I had thought the event began at 6:30 p.m., but it was slotted for 7 p.m. I only had time to grab a meal of chicken served with a white, ranch-based sauce, mixed fruit of pineapples, green grapes and cantaloupe, pink lemonade, and cookies.

It was only slightly embarrassing to my journalistic conscience to watch other reporters set up cameras and audio equipment for the event, while I took notes about the chicken nuggets.

Thursday (Sesame chicken, fried rice and wontons)

This was when my week began to get rougher.

Free food was scarcer toward the end of the week, and the few times I had the opportunity to eat offerings, I either had class or was on an assignment. Typically my busiest school day, Thursday begins with an 8 a.m. Success in Media course and do not end until 4:50 p.m., after Visual Communications.

I RSVP’d online to a competition in the Human Sciences building, where students were supposed to get a certain number of peers to eat their fried ice cream midday. I considered skipping class to eat lunch at the Baptist Student Ministry. But in the end, I decided to attend class instead of eating. Pats on the back for me.

Fortunately, that evening I had a date with my boyfriend, Zach. (Yes, we have to schedule time to see each other.) He ordered us Little Panda, a classic small Texas chain. I dined on sesame chicken, fried rice, fried cheese wontons and a Diet Dr. Pepper.

Since it’s 2015 and I am an equal in society now, we trade off buying the food when dining out. But, it happened to be his turn to pay, and sometimes a girl just has to eat.

Friday (Chicken, french fries and toast)

Throughout the day, I was doing my best to not act out on my “hanger,” an emotion felt when grumpy from hunger.

I completed my normal schedule. I went to my Hispanic Media class. I wrote about bees for The Hub. I shot a high school football game in Idalou for the A-J.

My friend Ashleigh had invited her father to stay with her and her roommate, Nicole, to watch the Texas Tech football game against Iowa State. As he was only in town for the weekend, she asked me to come meet him that evening.

When I arrived at her apartment, she was coming back from a trip to Raising Cane’s for a few friends already at her place. She had boxes of chicken, toast and french fries for everyone. God bless her.

 Findings 

Last week, I learned it is possible for college students to live exclusively on free food, but it’s incredibly inconvenient. My conservative estimate is that I saved about $50.

In order to eat free food offered at events on a regular basis, you would have to have quite a bit of free time or a loose schedule. It is not going to be healthy or nutritious.

But if you’re strapped for cash, consider attending one of the many events offered at Tech. Take that advice—it’s free.

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About Allison Terry

Allison Terry is an electronic media and communications major from Lubbock, Texas. She hopes to work in the media industry after graduation.

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