In November 2021, LMU students began to share their unappetizing experiences with University dining through the Instagram account @lmuliarfoods. The account has amassed more than thirteen hundred followers and features over 100 student submissions of the not-so-yummy food they were served on campus. The account is a popular hub for students to commiserate the quality of their university-provided meals. Photos show bugs, more bugs, and “life-worthy” insects, plastic —who doesn’t love a nice crunch— and even shocking findings. Despite these discoveries, the university proudly advertises on-campus meals as the “fuel of education.”
According to LMU’s Website “the most different thing you will experience now, is that you oversee when and what you eat. Before college, you may have had a very structured way of eating at home. Whatever you’re used to, campus dining will allow you to be in charge of your meals, including what and when you eat.”
Despite claiming to give students’ self-control over their meals, countless students think the university does not provide enough food options; well, appetizing ones, at least. Senior Jade Wilson said that during her sophomore year on campus, she found a surprise in her pre-class snack.
“I bought a pack of blueberries at the C store; it, it had little green worms in it,” Wilson said. “I think the food is the worst part of our campus. It is ridiculous considering the amount of tuition we pay.”
Despite the flourishing ecosystem in student meals, other students, such as senior Lauren Frechman, found that while the food is sometimes tolerable, it is often unhealthy and inefficient.
“I thought the quality of the food wasn’t the best and the service was very slow. Many times I had to leave the lair before getting my food or else I would’ve been late to my class because of how slow the service was,” says Frechman. “I enjoyed the sandwiches towards the beginning of the school year. However, the line was always so long, and the service was too slow. I didn’t mind Qdoba, however, I couldn’t eat that meal every day because it wasn’t the healthiest.”
Frechman said that after her experience trying to make on-campus food work for her schedule and diet, she began to resort to other options.
“I’ve only lived on campus my sophomore year because freshman year was online, but after October of my sophomore year, I avoided the Liar and didn’t eat at it once for the rest of the school year,” says Frechman.
While students have shared their struggles finding meals that are both yummy and would, others fear the university is not taking their dietary restrictions seriously. According to LMU Dining Services “Your LMU dining program provides health and wellness support. We have resources to help support and connect you with options that meet your needs, whether you have food allergies, celiac disease, are an athlete, are interested in plant-based options, or are interested in general health and wellness topics.”
Junior Addison Appleton fears that students with dietary restrictions are not only given enough meal options, but are being exposed to said restricted ingredients.
“I’m allergic to gluten—I don’t have celiac, just intolerant— and freshman year when I would go to the lair I would get a gluten-free sandwich pizza” said Appleton. “I would even clarify with the worker ‘this is gluten free right’ and they said yes.”
With not many gluten free options on campus to begin with, Appleton relied on the pizza as the liar despite admitting she gets tired of eating the same thing for every meal. Despite the consistency of her safe food, the pizzas were not what she thought.
“One day I realized that the pizzas they had given me were normal pizzas and not the gluten free pizzas. So, obviously I was pissed and I was like how often have they been giving me gluten without me realizing it. Luckily I’m just intolerant but if I had celiac it would be so terrible. So I talked to my parents about it and my dad emailed the head of the lair and complained and they sent an email back saying they have plenty of gluten free options (they also advertise this). Eating gluten free is hard enough and then not communicating to your staff about how important it is to understand allergies.”
The Lair is continuing to change throughout the year, whether it has been due to @lmulairfoods is still unknown, however, the account was last active in September and has not been heard from since. The Lion reached out for comment from the Instagram account, but received no response. Only time will tell if the college food vigilante will be needed again.
