Vegan students given ‘Hunger Games’ meals during coronavirus quarantine
New York University has apologised after students in dorm room quarantine were served awful meals – with one vegan receiving steak for lunch.
University students in the US have complained of being given cereal with no milk, beef and cheese in vegan meals and sometimes no food at all as they complete two weeks of self-isolation before returning to class.
New York University has since issued a statement apologising to students after dozens of them documented the epic fails on TikTok but said it had struggled to cope with nearly 20 per cent of students requesting specialised meals.
Before returning to class next month students from out of state must self-isolate inside their dorm rooms for two weeks as part of coronavirus restrictions, with NYU providing three free meals a day to keep them inside.
One student @coolbeans_grace posted a video claiming her severe allergy was being ignored by the university.
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“I have a bad gluten allergy and this is what they gave me – a chicken sandwich,” she said. “I’ve emailed them to tell them, ‘Hey I’m still getting these meals that have stuff I can’t eat in them,’ and they haven’t responded.
“And I have no sense of smell also, so I can’t tell whether this is good or bad, and there’s just random bits of plastic in it. Like this wasn’t wrapped but there’s plastic in it.”
Another student @benbenfuntime shared how he had been given a steak and cheese salad by NYU for lunch – despite being vegan.
Another vegan @filmgrrrl69 revealed how her vegan dinner consisted of a packet of chips, muesli bar, orange and pudding – which on the label said it was made from “real milk”.
@madison_veldman said she had taken to smelling the meals she received from NYU as “so far the food has been questionable”.
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“It’s 11.15 and I just got my breakfast,” she said, revealing a meal consisting of a bagel, chocolate croissant, fruit and grape juice.
Student Lauren revealed in another video how she got her first meal of the day – “lunch” at 6pm – consisting of a watermelon chicken salad, a rice krispie bar, peanut butter and an unripe orange.
Others revealed that they were receiving just random assortments of food items, with packets of cereal but no milk common.
For breakfast @_daniellegould received a chocolate chip biscuit, corn chips, a sachet of balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing and a salt packet.
Some students were faring even worse though, with one horrified woman sharing how it had been 20 hours since her last meal after she was skipped for food delivery.
Others had taken to posting signs outside their dorm room begging for food.
“PLEASE DON’T SKIP MY ROOM FOR FOOD!” one sign read, according to The New York Times.
“I haven’t gotten food today or yesterday. Please help.”
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‘NEARLY 20 PER CENT OF THE MEALS ARE SPECIALISED’
After videos of the students’ meals went viral, NYU responded by issuing a statement saying they were attempting a “never-before-tried operation” and “nearly 20 per cent of the meals are specialised – kosher, vegan, halal etc”.
“But it is vital to get it right, and we are disappointed in (NYU’s food vendor) Chartwells’ management of the quarantine meals process. We and Chartwells are correcting the situation promptly,” the statement read.
In response the university had added extra shifts to make food and more staff to deal with complaints.
University staff will also be able to order meals through another delivery service for isolating students “if the food that shows up isn’t good enough”.
“We recognise that when people are required to quarantine in their rooms by themselves, few things in the day are more important than looking forward to something nice to eat, so this is a particularly regrettable error and a let-down for our students,” they said.
STUDENTS IN ‘HUNGER GAMES’-STYLE QUARANTINE
The condemnation of NYU online has been swift, with many pointing out that the university is one of the most prestigious – and therefore expensive – colleges in the country.
“For a multimillion-dollar PRIVATE school, they should be giving you guys your money’s worth,” one person wrote on Tiktok, while another added: “I’m livid. My mother is coeliac. I can’t even imagine a school you pay $70,000 for disregarding allergies or the general welfare of students.”
Other people joked that the meals were so bad it was “Fyre-fest vibes” and, “It’s almost like they’re intentionally doing this at this point.”
“Let the Hunger Games begin,” one person commented.
“My first week of university I was enjoying frosh (orientation) week, parties and new friends. These poor kids are literally starving. THIS IS NOT FAIR,” another wrote.
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