Galloway Dining: SAGE v. FLIK

Recently, Galloway switched its dining service from FLIK to SAGE Dining, and UL Galloway students were asked their opinions about the switch. They were also asked about personal preferences and if they think the food is healthy, and many students expressed strong feelings about both FLIK and SAGE.

The main question of the survey was: Do students prefer FLIK or SAGE food? With a strong majority of 99% in favor of SAGE, it’s obvious that SAGE is generally preferred and more enjoyable to students than FLIK ever was. When asked why, many students said that they appreciate the variety of options that SAGE offers. Students with dietary restrictions and preferences said that they love the large variety of vegetarian and diet-friendly options. A large number of students have expressed how SAGE has also saved them money. With FLIK, a lot of students spent more money at the snack shop to eat during the day simply so they didn’t have to eat FLIK’s food. Now they’re genuinely enjoying SAGE’s food, and they don’t have to use personal money to pay for extra food (especially since dining is a part of Galloway’s tuition, it seems pointless to pay for food that people don’t eat).

When asked about concerns for SAGE, a number of students expressed their doubts about SAGE keeping up their good work with variety and quality of food. After a few weeks with SAGE, the novelty does seem to be slowly wearing down. It almost feels like they used their better meals at the start and are now just using the average, mediocre meals to balance it out. SAGE’s first week was close to a cornucopia of food with a large variety of options like hot dogs, grilled cheese, burgers, chili, mac & cheese, etc. In the survey, quite a few students complained about the ‘kid food,’ claiming it was unhealthy and strange to have such a ‘junk-food’ based nutrition plan. Although this food was unhealthy, the majority of the student body loved it and seemed slightly disappointed when SAGE started dealing with real food and dishes. Nevertheless, SAGE is very popular at many private schools and generally prides itself on being healthy, high-quality, and environmentally friendly.

So, all we can do is hope that SAGE’s quality stays higher than FLIK’s. The food is generally better quality but sometimes finds itself to be worse. And, although students prefer Sage, FLIK might have had its reasons for being the way that it was. Many upperclassmen say that FLIK was similar to SAGE when it first came to Galloway, so we have to just wait and see if SAGE inevitably follows the same path as FLIK.

By Sophia Artigue