Can any current students/alumni comment on the food at Bard?

rahsule · 2011-04-29T13:43:21.000Z

Sorry, I feel like such a nutcase asking this.

I’m so excited about Bard, however one of the only negative things I’ve heard is the food situation, more specifically Kline.

I’m just wondering if anybody can tell me if what I’ve heard is just an exaggeration, or if it is really that bad.

I know that it is required for students living on campus to have a meal plan, so is there a grocery store that sells wholesome food staples like nuts, fruit, etc. that are on the meal plan, in lieu of eating at Kline?

Sorry I’m weird. I’m just so picky when it comes to food. Never want to go back to high school cafeteria cuisine!

Thanks so much.

stradmom · 2011-04-29T16:57:05.000Z

My D actually likes the food at Kline, for the most part. They’re pretty responsive to student requests, and she’s been in conversations with some of the chefs who are trying new ideas regularly. She does supplement with other items purchased either on campus or in town, however.

rahsule · 2011-04-30T01:03:18.000Z

Thanks for replying stradmom, appreciate it.

lilygraces · 2011-05-01T11:27:40.000Z

Kline isn’t terrible. My brother transfered to Bard from Binghamton and when he got here he thought it was funny how often everyone was complaining about the food when compared to state school food, Bard’s food was amazing.

Kline does get repetitive though and the food isn’t the best, which is hard for anyone to do for ~2000 people for 3 meals a day. We also have Manor which has better quality food and you can get food to order (i.e. omelets, burgers, grilled cheese, salads), and Down the Road which you can get anything you want from.

Inside Kline there’s a very small grocery story called the Green Onion (or, The Gronion) and there are a few supermarkets in town.

It really isn’t as bad as everyone says and if you actually think it is, then there are other options.

rahsule · 2011-05-01T11:34:05.000Z

Thanks a lot lilygraces! I think this is the second time you’ve answered one of my questions, so I appreciate it. I’m glad to know it’s not as terrible as I’ve heard.

heyalb · 2011-05-05T15:58:02.000Z

There’s a nice health food store in Red Hook (one of the two college towns), and there are regular shuttle buses to take you into town and bring you back to Bard.

Like many legends about Bard, the “bad food” karma takes on a life of its own. It’s really not that bad, and they are always open to suggestions.

It’s good that you’re excited about Bard — it’s a gem. :)

rahsule · 2011-05-05T16:10:58.000Z

@heyalb: Thanks for the info! I did think maaaybe it was being built up a bit too much, but I just wanted to be sure! Thanks again. :)

paranoidsenior · 2011-05-26T19:43:32.000Z

DON’T LISTEN TO ANYBODY WHO SAYS THE FOOD AT BARD IS GOOD. stradmom’s daughter is an anorexic and tells her mom the food is good so that she thinks she’s eating. Be prepared to get ripped off like you never have before and eat what might as well be mangey fox smothered in kraft ranch dressing. just to throw in a little stat and to breakdown the meal plan for you…
you pay $2940 a semester for food.
depending on your plan you’ll get some amount of bard bucks and some amount of meals a semester or a week (since you’re a freshman you’ll have 19 meals a week and $150 for the semester). A block plan allows you to have some amount of meals a semester (I think the most common one is 265 meals a semester and $100 bard bucks) and eat a dtr (a cafe on campus open till around midnight depending on the day), whereas a regular plan makes it so that you have only a certain amount of meals a week (as i said before you will have 19). These 19 meals a week don’t roll over, at this point you’re probably like okay word I’ll just eat like 6 meals on Sunday, but No! there is a designated time for a meal. During week days breakfast is from 8-11:30, lunch is from 11:30-3:30, and dinner is from 4:30-7:30. On weekends breakfast is from 9-3:30 and dinner is from 4:30-7:30. This means if you swipe your ID at 11:31 am for breakfast you just lost your lunch for the day because you can’t swipe again until 4:30 for dinner. Even if you have a block plan (which you won’t be able to get until 2nd semester) you can only swipe once in that given period of time. so now for the statistics. so after first semester you’ll get to choose some meal plan with varying amounts of bard bucks and meals. although you can only use bard bucks, at the green onion (bard’s grocery store that sells bottled frappuccinos, rotting lettuce, refrigerated snickers bars, kraft mac and cheese, those asian microwavable noodles, and kashi bars), kline (biggest waste of bard bucks imaginable), manor, and dtr, try to think of bard bucks as a rebate… just for the sake of the math. then figure out how many possible meals you could have in a semester… if you don’t have a block plan just multiply the amount of meals in a week by the amount of weeks in a semester (15). so next semester you will have (19*15=285) potential meals. Also, you will absolutely miss a couple meals a week due to class or sleep, or a million other things that could restrict you from eating food in that three hour period. now subtract the amount of bard bucks you got (remember your rebate) from the amount for board for a semester ($2940). For you this will be $2940-($150 bard bucks) = $2790… that is the amount you are paying for meals in a semester. now divide this number by the amount of potential meals you are paying for and you will find (2790/285)=$9.80 per meal, if you went to every single meal in a semester. That might not sound that bad but next semester when you miss four meals a week and can’t get them back that’s $40 bucks down the drain. Or next semester when kline and dtr are the only things open on weekends but you can only swipe at kline but there’s nothing edible and all you can eat is a small cup of cheerios, you’re going to be like, did I really just pay $10 for this 3 oz cup of cheerios? And that’s the best plan… at least in the sense that it is the least you pay for your meals. The worst is the $850 bard bucks and 65 meals a semester. that’s $(2940-850)/65 meals =$32.15 per meal at kline or dtr. The same meal a visitor, who isn’t mandated to be on a meal plan and doesn’t pay Bard 55k a year, pays $6 for. And trust me, even that visitor is getting ripped off. Here’s the moral of the story be a gangster and tell them that you’re halal and can’t eat the food they cook. Then take the money you payed for board and go out to a 5 star for every meal, you’ll definitely still have money left over at the end of the semester.
I really think I put too much detail into the getting ripped off part. I want you all to know that I could write just as avidly about the terrible quality of the food. Seriously, I have swiped at kline walked around 5 times looking for something that wouldn’t put me out for a week and walked right out. It is terrible. To be fair though, I’m not somebody who ever really liked powdered eggs or defrosted vegetables or meats. If you enjoy foods made from generally cheap, poor quality ingredients, then you may be a little less upset than me, but that’s only half of it. Everything is always in someway messed up. They can’t cook to save their lives, actually they hire mentally handicapped people to cook the food (I mean it, you’ll see on the weekends when you get there). Just as I was about to get into the sanitation, my mom has called me to go eat dinner. So I have to go eat dinner which I will cherish every last bite of and be so happy that it is not bard food. I advise all you incoming students who care about the taste and quality of food to cherish the food you eat for the next two months… just wait.

stradmom · 2011-05-26T20:06:15.000Z

paranoidsenior, I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but there’s no call for personal attacks on my family.

irvinemom · 2011-05-26T22:35:15.000Z

Geez, won’t write a novel like the earlier poster. Only a parent but my D just returned from finishing her freshman year at Bard (and absolutely loves it there). Says the food “isn’t bad” and the food services staff listen to suggestions and are willing to try new offerings in their menu. D’s a vegetarian and says she has found enough healthy choices to satisfy her. She is going to a lesser food plan next year but that’s only bec. she’s not a big breakfast eater and really only needs two complete meals per day.

paranoidsenior · 2011-05-27T02:27:25.000Z

sorry stradmom, that was supposed to be more humorous and less offensive than it came out. I can’t objectively speak for the food at bard, there are kids who absolutely love kline… something I will never understand. I can tell you all though that no matter what your position on the food is you are all getting ripped off.
To reiterate, the formula for how much you pay for a meal at bard is:
((2940-bard bucks)/ *meal per semester)
*meals in a semester for resident plans is (meals per week *15)

Then if you want to know the percentage of how much more you’re paying than a visitor to the campus, put this number over 6 subtract 1 and multiply by 100.

I’ll actually list all of these for each meal plan.
Resident 19: $9.80 per meal and 63% more than a visitor
Resident 14: $13.05 per meal and 117% more than a visitor
Resident 10: $17.93 per meal and 199% more than a visitor
Block 265: $10.72 per meal and 79% more than a visitor
Block 175: $15.66 per meal and 161% more than a visitor
Block 65: $32.15 per meal and 436% more than a visitor

block plans have the benefit of being able to swipe at dtr and not losing a meal because you couldn’t eat during a meal time. the resident plans assume each meal is attended. If you wanted to know how much you actually paid you could subtract the meals you missed in a semester from the meals per semester or just realize that whenever you miss a meal you lose that amount of money. All around this is all very generous math too because it doesn’t take into consideration the fact that bard bucks are restricted to the campus cafes and that most of these items can be bought for half the price in red hook. It also ignores the inflated point system of the cafes (manor and dtr) that we meal swipe at. Bard is the third most expensive school in the country, you think we’d get discounted on our meal plan, when in fact it’s raised by being a resident of the college.

lilygraces · 2011-05-27T13:18:55.000Z

paranoidsenior, every school rips people off on food. so it goes. no need to get all up in arms about it because it is what it is and you need to be fed. they overcharge you ASSUMING you will eat all of the meals provided to you/that you sign up for. there’s also the fact that at kline you can get unlimited amount of food during any designated meal time. there’s also the fact that WE’RE the ones who have to pay for the food that they make, hence the gross markup from visitor meals. I would assume that chartwells would not factor in visitor meals into the buying of food. also, you neglect the fact that with the block plans, part of the reason that there’s such a markup is the fact that you get MUCH more bard bucks with which to spend on food. They assume that since you have fewer meals (except for block 265) you will spend more on buying things from the Green Onion or Manor or DTR to make food in your dorm.

while i agree with you that it’s annoying that bard bucks are restricted to campus, it is in the process of expanding. you can’t always have your cake and eat it too or expect every college town to be the same. i’m not excusing the inflated prices nor am i excusing the fact that inflated food prices are prevalent in universities across the US, but it is far from abnormal and it isn’t as necessary as you think it is to highlight it. a person who asks about the QUALITY of food doesn’t need to be lectured on the fact that even if the food was spectacular they’d be getting ripped off. no matter where they choose to go, they’d be getting ripped off whether it’s a SUNY school, bard, or an ivy school.

paranoidsenior · 2011-05-28T01:33:17.000Z

Lily,
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the mathematical model. The math makes the assumption that you attend every meal… that is doing justice to bard and injustice to the student. you’re right, you don’t attend every meal, so the statistics I provided should be higher and you should realize that you are paying far more than the numbers I listed (smaller denominator means you pay more). The numbers I gave were if you managed to attend every single meal in your plan in a semester, which as you said doesn’t happen. Second of all, while the block plan gives you more bard bucks, it doesn’t matter because you’d be way better of with $2940 in cash than $850 in bard bucks and 65 meals (which you’re paying $32 for each). Also, although kline is a buffet and I’m sure you could get your $10 worth of food (although I highly doubt you could get $32 worth), most people don’t. And that’s the economic model of a buffet; they work because most people don’t eat more food than it costs to provide the food. In fact most people won’t even get $6 worth of food and that’s why it costs $6 to eat there if you’re paying with cash. You can’t ignore the fact that what it should cost to eat at any of the cafeterias on campus is $6 (even that’s a stretch to me). To put it plain and simple that’s why bard charges $6 to everyone but the students, that includes faculty, staff, grad students and anyone using flex or cash. Also, while bard has to provide areas for students to eat, it is unfair that by living on campus you are required to be on a meal plan. If someone believes they can feed themselves more effectively than bard they shouldn’t be required to be on a meal plan or at the very least should be allowed to put their board on flex. I also haven’t said anywhere in my previous posts that other school’s don’t do this too. I’m sure everyone rips their students off. However, out of all the colleges/universities I have eaten at, bard’s food has been the worst and it is for that reason alone that I address the issue of meal costs. I can’t give the statistics for other school’s because I don’t know how their meal plans work, but I do know how bard’s works. Also, Chartwells is a very corrupt company. They pay their workers $9.30 an hour. That’s a full time job for those people, clearly they’re not the ones getting your $6 k. While bard definitely takes a piece of the pie (not the decaying one next to the bagels in kline), it’s really Chartwells that is capitalizing off of us. I would rather have my money go to well prepared, local food and support the local economy than to a large company that exploits its workers and me. Ultimately you’re right, this wasn’t a question about how bard rips you off, this was a question about the quality of food at bard. And I said I think the food sucks. But I think there’s much more to the food at bard sucking than just its taste and that is what I have tried to outline.

rahsule · 2011-06-04T15:57:57.000Z

Thank you paranoidsenior. I think I will just go ahead and say I’m halal.

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Can any current students/alumni comment on the food at Bard?

post by rahsule on Apr 29, 2011

post by stradmom on Apr 30, 2011

post by rahsule on Apr 30, 2011

post by lilygraces on May 1, 2011

post by rahsule on May 1, 2011

post by heyalb on May 6, 2011

post by rahsule on May 6, 2011

post by paranoidsenior on May 27, 2011

post by stradmom on May 27, 2011

post by irvinemom on May 27, 2011

post by paranoidsenior on May 27, 2011

post by lilygraces on May 27, 2011

post by paranoidsenior on May 28, 2011

post by rahsule on Jun 5, 2011

Closed on Apr 18, 2021

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