Providing locally fresh food: There is a garden in belmont called Belmont Community Gardens. They grow fresh food and I think it would be a good idea to team up with them and offer students fresh produce on specific days.

There are many national food holidays that the school could be taking advantage of in order to have more students use the cafeteria. For example, September 16th is national cheeseburger day and October 4th is national taco day. Including food holidays into the cafeteria would be an interactive way for students to utilize the cafeteria and enjoy the foods.

A garden would be a huge benefit to our campus, it could allow students to form new connections as well as improving their skills while working in groups. It also allows students with different backgrounds, majors, and personalities come together and form relationships they normally would not.

A garden on campus could also minimize food insecurity in students on campus, forestnation.com states that 20-50 percent of college students experience food insecurity. With food costs rising a garden on campus could provide cheaper produce which in return could lessen the insecurity many students feel.

Having a garden on campus expands the opportunity of having an agriculture major or minor on campus. If we had an agriculture major it would allow our garden to thrive as we would have students who are wanting to learn how to care for it. Learning how to care for the garden could benefit student knowledge and allow them to learn what to do with products that you need to nurture and take good care of.

Work study at The Abbey provides students with the opportunity to make money while also benefitting the campus and working with sports teams. Work study students get paid and if we had work study students tend to the garden it allows them to get hours while also having reliable students take care of the garden

Students can apply to work study and choose to work strictly with the garden if they are passionate about nature and caring for plants. It allows the work study students to provide for students on campus and learn while they work.

It is stated that 7-11 percent of college students suffer from a allergy that could be life-threatening. When this is not taken into consideration students can be seriously hurt. The cafeteria provides good options for students with allergies but the full list of ingredients in some foods are not listed and could cause a huge problem is a student with an allergy ate it thinking it was safe and in reality they were allergic to it.

Having an allergy can greatly affect you when you are in college and trying to participate in activities involving food with your friends. When students with allergies are doing food related activities it is important to make them inclusive to those with allergies to certain things. Having an inclusive cafeteria is extremely important and allows the cafeteria experience to improve drastically for multiple students.

Vegan and vegetarian students on campus: The amount of vegan and vegetarian people is on a continous rise, and while many places are expanding their knowledge and options of vegan and vegetarian food many colleges are falling behind. In a ssurvey it is said that 14 percent of college students are vegan or vegetarian and while that percentage does not seem like a lot that is still 14 percent of people on campus who do not have access to options of the food they need.

Religious Restrictions: While The Abbey is a college that practices Catholicism not all students are of that religion. There are many students who practice different religions and need different food options in the cafeteria. For example, students who practice Hinduism and Buddhism killing living creatures is forbidden and eating them is not allowed, thus having few meatless options on campus is a big problem. Not only these religions have food restrictions, Judaism and Islam restrict eating pork and other meats on certain days.