Written by Ashley Offenback
Hungry students at Messiah have three options for on-campus meals: Lottie Nelson Dining Hall, Union Café, and Falcon Express. Lottie is the main dining room and offers an array of all-you-care-to-eat food. The quality is great, and the desserts receive exceptional student reviews. The variety is average, and there are weekly meals that are usually the same; for example, Tuesday is “Turkey Tuesday.” Some good news: It is possible to eat healthy! Unfortunately, though, for all the healthy choices Lottie offers, it presents just as many oh-so-tempting unhealthy choices. Vegetarians find that Lottie meals demand a good amount of creativity as the hot food lines rarely offer meatless options. Vegetarians say it’s often necessary to incorporate ingredients from separate stations in Lottie in order to pull together an adequate meal. In addition to the hot-meal line, Lottie offers a great assortment of bagels, coffee, desserts, drinks, salad, sandwiches, soups, and waffles.
The Union Café in the student union provides a wide selection of made-to-order food in exchange for flex money, Falcon Dollars, or cash. There is great variety here with six separate food stations serving Mexican, frozen desserts, grilled and fried favorites, pizza, sandwiches and salads, and Starbucks coffee. In addition to these fresh options, the Union provides a great assortment of grab-and-go items. The value, however, is poor because the food is pretty expensive here, and freshmen only receive $200 in flex money with their meal plan. Falcon Express is a small cafeteria and, though it recently received a complete menu makeover, it is more popular with teachers than students. The Falcon Express offers a petite menu of breakfast, fried favorites, sandwiches, and salads.