I remember living in the dorms my freshman year. The first thing my roommate and I invested in was a mini-fridge. Then came the microwave and the hot water boiler. We didn’t have a sink in our room and and our kitchen supplies came from mugs and forks we stole from the cafeteria. It was ratchet. Once every two months, we took a trip to the grocery store, and man, did it feel like going to Disney World. That’s when I knew dorm life was going to be a food lover’s struggle.
Car Situation
I lived in a dorm on Central Campus at the University of Michigan. The dorm food in the cafeteria was a salty, greasy, and unsatisfying. It got old after a while and I just wanted my own food to snack on in my room or at the library. Of course, there’s convenient stores on campus but they didn’t sell fresh produce or brands that I liked. I needed a grocery store.
Having a car my freshman year would have been a life saver, but it also would have taken away from the experience of struggling to fend for myself with the other freshmen. The next best thing was the bus.
I was excited for my first big adventure to the grocery store. I hadn’t been in so long that I forgot what one looked like. I researched the bus route and had a grocery list prepared. I hopped on the bus, with a goofy smile on my face, and sat down looking at a few miserable faces staring back at me. They obviously weren’t going to Kroger. Fifteen minutes later I realized I got on the wrong bus. And I looked just as miserable as everyone else.
I got off and walked a mile and a half to Kroger. Google maps is the real life saver. I finally entered the magical, sliding glass doors and all of my troubles went away. I was finally in the holy cathedral of food.
Going Overboard
After I entered heaven, I went a little overboard on the amount of food I got. It was literally like dropping a kid off at Chuck E. Cheese’s and letting them run free. I’ve obviously been grocery shopping before, but it had been a few months and I got overjoyed by seeing all of the brands that I loved and cherished.
I stocked my cart with too much food, and by the time I checked out I had three, filled paper bags. This will be interesting to haul back to the dorms.
I remember being super paranoid about getting on the right bus on the way back. So I checked, and double-checked the exact route I needed to get on. Twenty minutes go by and no bus. Ten minutes later, the bus I need zooms by and didn’t even stop. WTF.
Getting impatient (as I usually do), I called my older teammate who had a car. Luckily, she was totally understanding and picked me up. I was embarrassed and felt so bad — total freshman move. My high from grocery shopping was gone and I just wanted to get back to the dorms.
No Storage Space
I got too much food. Shit happens. But there was literally no space in my mini fridge and I ended up stacking everything on my desk. At this point, I’m wishing I could go back and return some things, but hell no was I about to go through that bus experience again. I remember thinking that I wished there was a food delivery service that could just bring me prepared snacks and meals. It was 2010 and that didn’t exist yet.
Lucky for you all, Chef’d is a thing — and it’s a VERY good thing. Spoon University partnered with Chef’d to bring you meal kits and ingredients for easy recipes. Starting in January, Spoon will be shipping meal kits to students who want to start cooking but don’t have the time for weekly trips to the grocery store.
If I had this in college, think of all the time I would have saved waiting 12,546 hours for the bus — in the cold — with three bags of groceries. Pardon me while I take a moment to cry. Chef’d will deliver storage-friendly, easy, on-the-go meal kits to keep you sane. Trust me, skip the grocery store transportation struggle and never feel like a freshman again.