By Bryona Colyar / The Jambar
A healthy mindset is crucial for students to be successful as each semester approaches. For some students, this can only be accomplished by having a set plan for meals and budgets.
Youngstown State University and other areas of the city provide several options to help students find meals at affordable prices.
Around the greater Youngstown area, food banks such as Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and Gleaners Food Bank are available at certain times of the day and week for those experiencing food insecurity.
In addition, YSU offers the Penguin Pantry with shelf-stable and frozen food options for students in need.
For meals on-campus, the most readily available options are restaurants provided by AVI Fresh, a branch of Warren-based AVI Foodsystems. AVI provides meal plans as a financial option to accommodate students’ needs.
AVI Corporate Dietician Lindsey Kirila said the dining hall is her top choice for students who want the most optimized low-price meals.
“If you visit the AVI Serves YSU webpage, there’s a health and wellness link to link you to the NutriSource page,” Kirila said. “Students are able to click on those menu items with our application called Dish. If you click on that menu item and you see a NutriGood logo, that means it has been qualified by our dieticians as meeting our healthy criteria.”
In regard to campus dining, Smoke & Fire Mobile Kitchen, Top & Toast Flatbreads and Stack’d are only a few of many restaurants located on campus for accessibility to students. Located in its own dining hall on the first floor of Kilcawley Center, the food court caters both affordable and healthy dining options to students.
Hot Head Burritos, The Mocha House and Jimmy John’s are other restaurants students can eat at off campus that accept meal plans.
AVI Marketing Director McKenzie Kobbe said the newest menus are a testament to AVI’s determination.
“We sit in on a bunch of meetings with housing, [resident] life, the [Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center] — we’re talking to all these different departments on a regular basis, [such as] First Year Student Services [and] International Programs Office, about all the different feedback they’re getting and we try to work through that feedback to provide the best experience for students,” Kobbe said.
Richelle Bernardo, resident director of AVI, said QR codes are posted at dining halls on campus for students to give instant feedback online.
“Suggestions, comments [and] questions, come directly to the management teams’ phones. We really are trying to push that platform for students to use just to get a better gauge of what people are looking for on campus,” Bernardo said.
With the new launch of restaurants to choose from, the AVI team urges students to go to aviserves.com for more information.
