Finding Food on Campus as a Student with Dietary Restrictions

One of the entrances to the Chick-fil-A on Howard University’s campus. (Sydney Goitia-Doran/101 Mag)

Last year, freshman Kori McNair stood in line behind her friend at the Bethune Annex cafeteria on Howard University’s campus and ordered a sandwich. She watched with disappointment as an Annex employee used a knife, covered in mayonnaise from her friend’s sandwich, to cut hers.

Many students wouldn’t think twice about this moment — but for McNair, who is allergic to a host of foods including dairy, nuts, egg, sesame and shellfish — a dirty knife could end in a trip to the hospital, or worse.

“I just told them, ‘I can’t have it, you’re gonna have to throw it out and restart.’ I felt so bad because it feels like you’re inconveniencing people,” she said. “But I’m not gonna eat food that I can’t have.”

McNair opts to eat her own food in her on campus dorm most of the time. She avoids situations involving cross-contamination that pose a risk to her health, which means options on campus are limited.

“Punch Out, the taco place is good, but other than that I can’t have sushi. The [smoothie] place, they have nuts, Chick-fil-A uses peanuts, so on campus options are very, very limited,”
she said. “And then with the closing of that whole strip with Chipotle and all those places, there aren’t any other options.”

McNair is referring to restaurants on Georgia Avenue, including Subway, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, and Negril Jamaican Eatery, which closed indefinitely at the end of the 2024-2025 school year to prepare for the reconstruction of the Wonder Plaza, a new strip of housing, food and recreational facilities.

When the Georgia Avenue Starbucks followed in October as part of a national downsizing, many students were left wondering what was left to eat around campus and leaving students with dietary restrictions with even fewer options.

“In some capacity, I think Howard is in a food desert,” McNair said. “I know when we think about that word we think about not having enough resources. We have food options [but] they aren’t really reliable.”

The National Library of Medicine defines a food desert as a neighborhood or community that has “limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.”

Off-campus food options weren’t the only recent changes to the food scene around Howard. Fall 2024 brought the return of a Chick-fil-A to The Blackburn Center and the removal of NuVegan Cafe. Senior Jaiden Thomas follows a pescatarian diet and talked about what the change meant for her.

“When NuVegan left, it was just kind of frustrating because that was my only outlet to buy something that I can have a balanced meal option and not just result in getting fries or just something quick from like the C store or something like that,” Thomas said.

Thomas lives off campus, which she says means spending more money to buy her own meals and cook for herself.

“When you don’t eat meat, the products at the store cost more money than your average meat products. If you like Morning Star, for example, which is a vegan product, that costs more money,” she said.

As for on-campus accommodations, new restaurants in Punchout include S&T Sushi and Everbowl, a smoothie establishment, two options that can be seen as healthier and could fit into vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian diets. Annex also has a vegan station, but McNair said it isn’t as inclusive as it could be.

“They have a vegan station and I’ve always thought that’s so funny because people can have allergies and not be vegan, and those stations will use nuts and things like that for their plant-based meats,” McNair said.

As students wait for Wonder Plaza construction to conclude and bring the return of Georgia Avenue staples, both McNair and Thomas hope Howard considers all students’ health and accessibility in campus dining decisions.

“At the end of the day we pay to go here and everybody should feel they have somewhere to eat and it’s healthy as well,” Thomas said.