Posts Tagged ‘saving on food’

How “college hunger” or food insecurity shows that universities are failing their students

Thursday, November 5th, 2020

The New York Times wrote a piece titled: “Tuition or Dinner?” in 2019, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of university students surveyed suffered from food insecurity in the past 30 days. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for a healthy, active life. Affordability is positioned at the center of every student’s life. I want to start by saying I do understand that being able to go to college is a privilege that unfortunately, due to the astronomical cost it takes to even pursue post-secondary education in the U.S., many do not have. 

Yet, this does not change the fact that college has practically become a requirement in most job markets. So, often enough, many teenagers are put in a position in which they not only have to shoulder debt but now have to factor food in an already stressful and drastic period of change.

There is also the fact that 18-year-old freshmen in their dorm room aren’t the main college demographic: according to a 2014 study done by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, one in every four college student has a child. As students, we are fed a certain narrative, to the point of nearly romanticizing this kind of “down on your luck,” charming-mess attitude when it comes to living. We are constantly told that thrift and affordability are normal parts of our twenties; we joke about the ramen we have stockpiled under our bed, the pizza we pick up in between classes, the “life hacks” we can use to skip out on meals. 

But when we pass off “thrift” as a normal part of student life, we add “hunger” to the culture of stress, anxiety, and depression that distort college education. 

How "college hunger" shows that universities are failing their students
Feeding America estimates that 1 in every 9 Americans were food insecure in 2018, equating to over 37 million Americans, including more than 11 million children. Image from Berea College “Hunger Hurts” Food Drive.

Many schools have created short term solutions. While this list is by no means comprehensive, here are some organizations you can go to, as well as some general resources if you are looking for free or discounted meals. 

  • I used Share Meals during my freshman year to donate my remaining meal swipes. Share Meals is an app that connects university students to free food at events, students with unused meal swipes, and other resources to help mitigate food insecurity.
  • Schools within the city like The New School, George Washington University, and City University of New York work with food pantries to have designated locations for students to get free food.
  • Often, colleges have Facebook Pages connecting students with events for free food. Here is my university’s.
  • Look for coupon booklets at your local university! Campus Clipper circulates in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. 

However, this does not change the fact that these are band-aid solutions for a widespread problem. When we excuse hunger and mental illness as a normal part of college life, we allow the institutions that exacerbate food insecurity not only in their students but in the community, to continue scott-free. 

Why are meal plans so expensive? Why are the attempts at building university-wide meal programs so slow-moving? Why are students the ones who have to start organizations like Share Meals and Swipe Out Hunger to bail out the failings of the college education system to provide for its students? 

Making food insecurity and college “hunger” a “normal” part of college positions the student as the failure, the incompetent, when they go hungry. Food insecurity is a failing of the American college system, and especially given these times, it is important to start implementing long term solutions. 

Campus Clipper helps connect students with discounts near them. For example, Two Boots Pizza is Buy one Get one Free with coupon and student ID.

Two Boots Campus Clipper Coupon Booklet
Click here to download the coupon!

You can find all of our active coupons at this link. Redeem them here:


By: Jessica Xing

Jessica is a senior at New York University majoring in English Literature. She has bylines in Vox, EGMNOW, and Electric Literature, and in her free time, she loves watching bad T.V. 

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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Expanding Your Palate: A Delicious Accident

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020

If you don’t leave your comfort zone voluntarily, life will drag you kicking and screaming out of it. This was part of the rude awakening I received as I transitioned to living in New York my freshman year. It wasn’t just college life that presented a challenge to me, but the city itself. New York has a unique way of making a person feel not just lonely, but isolated, despite living side by side with millions of other people. You walk with them on your way to class, you eat a foot away from them at the tiny corner restaurant, and you sometimes even find yourself angry that they are in your space. And yet, no matter how close you may be to others, you somehow still feel alone. At least, this is how it may feel at first. 

My second semester at NYU brought on more adventures than expected. With my new friend Leslie beside me, I finally felt less lonely than I had at the beginning of the school year. I could breathe a sigh of relief that now I had someone to do things and go places with. But classes and schoolwork got the better of us, and in about mid-March, we found ourselves as unsatisfied as before we had gotten to know each other. As we sat under the fluorescents of the library at 2:00 a.m. one night, I turned away from my half-written paper and said to Leslie, “We don’t do anything. We only have a quarter of the year left and nothing to show for our freshman year.”

She was reluctant to acknowledge it but ultimately agreed. However, we both knew what the real problem was. Nearly identical in nature, two homebodies out of their element, we were anxious. Overall uneasy, generally nervous, ultimately too timid for New York. And broke. Most of all broke. 

New York is a city that demands you to demand something of it and we were used to having to ask nicely. But no longer. We made a decision to go out more, to try to do something fun, even if it was just one thing, every weekend. We would break out of our shells and get to know the city, as we were meant to. We would save the money for those things that were worth it and would find other events that were free to go to. Inevitably, we were drawn to more and more restaurants with mouth-watering images of food on their websites and dazzling settings to dine in. Going out to eat undoubtedly became one of our favorite ways to treat ourselves, and that we did. 

Some Friday night in April we chatted eagerly on our walk up to Panna II, an Indian restaurant Leslie had hyped up to me after reading reviews and seeing pictures of their interior, which looked like an explosion of Christmas lights. She was excited to try Indian food for the first time and I hadn’t had my fill since last summer, so as we approached Panna II we were too distracted to realize what was happening.

“Come in, come in,” a man at the foot of the stairs said. We could see Panna II, just a few steps up from where we were on the sidewalk, winking at us with all its lights. Hungry and keen on stuffing ourselves with chicken tikka masala as fast as possible, we followed the man without a second thought. We followed him down. As we walked down a previously-unnoticed set of stairs into another restaurant, we looked at each other, panicked and too shy to say what was on our minds: “Wait, I’m sorry, I think we’re in the wrong place.”

In a whirlwind we were seated under rows of multicolored chili lights and menus were placed in front of us. When the host left us to browse the menu, we could only stare at each other. 

Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant in New York City.

“I don’t think this is it,” I eventually whispered across from Leslie. “Is this maybe their downstairs area?” I had been so set on Panna II that I was hopeful this was the case.

“Maybe?” Leslie whispered back, also clinging to hope. At this point we had to have looked suspicious huddled over the table, whispering to each other and looking around with wide eyes, completely disregarding the menus. 

“No, this isn’t it,” I said, but it was still barely registering in my mind.

“Then where are we?” Leslie asked. She was as frazzled as I was.

I looked down at our menus and found our answer. I read out, “Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant.”

We stayed. It would have been rude to leave even though we hadn’t ordered yet, and anyway, we still got our Indian food and twinkling lights. The food truly was some of the best, if not the best, Indian that I’ve ever had. Leslie quickly became a fan of it and ever since we’ve ordered take-out from Royal Bangladesh countless times. Though things hadn’t gone as planned, we made the most of it and ultimately had a spectacular night, one that we’d laugh about for a long while after.

This night didn’t represent a huge leap in our leaving the comfort zone, but it was undeniably a moment in which we had to learn to go with the flow and enjoy the moment. It was especially difficult for two people who needed to feel in control when exploring the city, but it paid off. I know though that if we could have gotten just a little more comfortable a little more quickly, we would have had way more stories to tell from our freshman year. 

Curious to see how I could have prepared myself to be more “out there” my freshman year, I recently researched some ways to get out of your comfort zone. The ones I found most notable chalked up to forming habits and reshaping your mindset to trying new things. I believe these to be the most important when wanting to explore the city because New York can take a lot out of you otherwise. If you find yourself struggling to want to go out, it is perfectly normal. But I’d suggest doing anything you can to get yourself to walk the city’s streets and uncover what it has to offer. Starting out small, just one restaurant, museum, or happy accident at a time can take you there.

And if you’re craving Indian food after reading this, Campus Clipper has a coupon just for you to use at Mughlai Indian Cuisine. Click on the link below to get either 50% or 15% off a delicious meal! It will be sure to satisfy your cravings.

You can find all of our active coupons at this link. Redeem them here:


By: Anaïs Nuñez-Tovar

Anaïs is currently a Junior at New York University and is majoring in English with a minor in Creative Writing. Her goal for the future is to work in the publishing industry and write on the side. She loves to write and read poetry and fiction in her spare time.

For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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Make Your Own Sushi: A Salmon Roll

Saturday, February 4th, 2017

Image Credit: http://12tomatoes.com/impressive-homemade-sushi-recipe-handrolled-salmon-avocado-and-cucumber-sushi/

Image Credit: http://12tomatoes.com/impressive-homemade-sushi-recipe-handrolled-salmon-avocado-and-cucumber-sushi/

Let’s start with a salmon roll. For this dish, you will need: seaweed, sushi rice, sushi rice vinegar, smoked salmon, cucumber, and carrot, as well as your bamboo mat. You should also have a cup of water and a spoon ready. The first step is to prepare the ingredients, starting with the rice. Begin by washing the rice, then cook it in a pot, just as you would with any other type of rice. If you don’t have a stove, you can use a microwave instead.

While the rice is cooking, go ahead and cut your ingredients into strips about three or four inches long and a quarter of an inch wide. If the vegetables are tougher, like carrots, it’s a good idea to boil them a little first so they’re easier to cut. Fold down about two inches from the sheet of seaweed and gently tear it off. Now place the large piece of seaweed horizontally on top of the bamboo mat. Dip your spoon into the cup of water; if your utensil is a little wet, it will help keep the rice from sticking. Spread the rice onto the seaweed, leaving a border of about an inch on the top, and about half an inch on the bottom.

Fold the bottom border up to the edge of the rice and pat it gently, then place the two inch strip of seaweed next to the part you just folded up. From here, line up your ingredients. I generally place the carrot on the bottom, smoked salmon in the middle, and cucumber at the top. This way, your softest material is surrounded by more solid ingredients, and your fingers aren’t in salmon mush. Now line a few extra grains of rice along the upper edge of the seaweed; the rice will act like glue when you roll the sushi together.

Pull the seaweed down so it aligns with the bottom of your bamboo mat. Hold the seaweed and the bamboo mat together at the bottom edge with your thumb and forefinger. With your three remaining fingers, hold the lined-up ingredients in place, then fold the seaweed and rice layer down over the ingredients. Then peel the bamboo mat back, pull the half-rolled sushi so it aligns with the edge of the mat again, and roll the bamboo mat and the sushi together completely.

The roll is now finished! When cutting it, use back and forth sawing motions to help maintain the sushi’s round shape. Enjoy!


This is the second chapter from an e-book by one of the Campus Clipper’s former publishing interns, who wrote about how to make sushi. Follow our blog for more chapters from this e-book. We have the most talented interns ever and we’re so proud of them! For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,  from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourage them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing and services.  

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.

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