Imagine finishing a two-hour soccer game, absolutely starving, to find the only place open on campus is The Wok. This was the reality for me and countless other student-athletes after evening games. While tasty, their offerings are heavy, greasy, and don’t do much to replenish what we spent in the game.
Our unpleasant routine reveals a greater issue within university dining: the struggle for student-athletes to fit accessible, appropriate dining with their cramped schedules.
Not only is the limited availability of dining options inconvenient, but it can also be detrimental to the health of an athlete, especially during their sport’s season. “It’s really important to fuel on game days and especially practice days when we have such long hours,” said sophomore Remi Cherkas of the Varsity Women’s Soccer Team. Nutrition serves a variety of crucial functions: fuel, recovery, overall health, energy — the list goes on.
URochester does not provide the necessary dining options that its student athletes require at the times essential for peak performance. Its two dining halls, late-night food court, and Hillside market are good starting points, but fall short of what athletes need to eat and when.
“In general, athletes need to eat quite a lot more [than non-athletes],” Holly Gilligan, registered dietitian nutritionist at the URMC said. “One way to think about it is the average person can probably get away with three meals a day, maybe a snack if they’re hungry. Athletes should truly try to be eating a meal or a snack every three hours [at the least] because they’re burning so much energy, not only in practice, but also just throughout the day in order to repair muscles and get their energy up.”
Her advice is echoed by high level coaches as well. Ashley Van Vechten, Head Coach of the Varsity Women’s Soccer Team, said “…nutrition is critical, it’s the platform in which any student athlete’s efficacy is built in terms of performance.” She too believes nutrition is one of the pillars of recovery and getting ready for the next day.
So what happens during recovery, and why is food so important for it? The fact is, food provides the nutrients supporting muscle repair, modulating inflammation, and supporting immune function. According to a journal written by a member of the Department of Anatomy and Radiology at the University of Valladolid, our muscles tire during lift sessions due to continuous mechanical work which consumes the energy stored in the muscles. This can lead to fatigue, which if not combated appropriately, can lead to an array of deficiencies, some of which Gilligan listed: “It leads to muscles that aren’t recovering well,” she said. “It leads to increased risk of injury. It usually leads to issues with sleeping, which then makes recovery even harder. It can make anxiety or depression even worse, if that’s already existing. It can lead to a lot of injuries that then don’t heal very well, and it pretty much goes down the line. If we’re not eating enough consistently, it can really impact just about every body system.”
So, what are athletes supposed to eat? Some foods are more important than others for peak performance. “Carbohydrates are first always. That’s the main energy source,” Gilligan said. “Protein to make sure they’re recovering well and rebuilding their muscles. And fruits and vegetables to make sure they’re getting all of the antioxidants crucial for energy, for recovery.” Depending on the specific tasks that they are being asked to do, the needs of athletes vary. Van Vechten explained that on heavy performance days — like a game day — there will be an increase in their carb intake in each meal. “Maybe that’ll look like 50% on a training day with 25% protein and 25% vegetables. On a lighter day, you are looking to replace some of those carbs with more fruits and vegetables.”
Unfortunately, hitting all of these food groups whenever necessary can be difficult for student-athletes at URochester. At the University, the dining scene consists of Douglass Dining Center, Danforth Dining Center, Blue Cactus, The Pit, Starbucks, Connections, and Hillside Market, each catering to different needs.
“We tailor the menus to meet the requirements of each dining space or dining hall,” said Brian Pape, the Director of Campus Dining Operations. “We directly take student feedback into consideration working with the Student Advisory Board, Student Government, and feedback systems to keep the menus rotating and new items featured. We have a large demographic of students here at the University and we use checklists to vet each locations’ menus to make sure offerings are available to everyone.”
The main problem isn’t necessarily what the dining locations are offering. “There is a lot that is out there, but it does require students to be ambitious and creative, and I would love to see if we can make that easier for them,” said Van Vechten.
Consistently accessing these nutritious meals is the main conflict. “The biggest issue that I run into most often is timing of dining halls being open,” said Gilligan. “The late night options tend to be a little bit more toward the fried food end of things, which is fine every once in a while but isn’t super helpful for performance. Athletes need to be eating early in the day, late in the evening, and that tends to be a big barrier.”
This issue has not gone unnoticed by the dining administration. “We are currently working on ways to expand the availability of and access to performance meals for athletes,” said Pape. “Options are available now, but the timing of their availability does not always align with athletes’ schedules.” Douglass and Danforth close at 8 p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively. When practice runs until 8 at night, the only locations left open with meal options are Hillside and the Pit.
In January 2026, Hillside stopped selling Wegmans bowls that have protein in them — a meal that many athletes with late schedules relied on after practices or late games. “The current Administration and USDA has made changes to the rules surrounding the transportation of protein,” informed Pape. With these bowls no longer available, the Pit is the only viable location open after 8 p.m.. As Gilligan mentioned, these options are not the most nutritious to eat on a nightly basis, serving as more of a mall-like food court than performance-focused dining.
So, what improvements can be made? One suggestion Van Vechten has is moving pre- and post-workout options into the Goergen Athletic Center (GAC). “Those are some things that we’ve seen at other campuses and that would be tremendous to have on our campus,” she said.
The Varsity Student Athlete Advisory Committee (VSAAC) agrees: “Right now we are meeting with the dining rep because the school has taken over dining,” said Claire Baim, a second-year member of VSAAC. “We are just going to come at them with a lot of different stuff. Something similar to Grab and Go is something that we want to talk about. Something in the GAC.”
While the additions of Saffron and Stone and Blue Cactus have certainly been beneficial in terms of offering more quality ingredients, the range of available options could be improved. Gilligan said that a good addition may be providing more variety at one of the late night spots on campus. More complex carbohydrates and lean protein options — such as salmon, quinoa, cottage cheese, or edamame — would support athletes’ nutritional requirements. This want for more variety is repeated by student-athletes themselves too. “They run out of the good foods really quickly and a lot of times it’s not standardized,” said Cherkas.
Many solutions to the dining accessibility problem are within the reach of our administration. It is essential to answer this issue promptly as it affects the health and recovery of our student-athletes. Our athletic teams should be able to walk off the field post-game or leave the gym after a lift with an array of accessible options supporting their recovery.
