My Turn

Let me set the scene for you: I'm at lunch in the Hickey Dining Hall Wednesday, Feb. 25, perusing over the lunchtime spread. I am pleased with what I find, for a change, and I eagerly fill my plate. I return to my table with a piece of chicken, an Italian sausage sandwich and some potatoes. As my friend Tommy and I fill our cups, we discuss what time we will attend Ash Wednesday Mass. Then it dawns on both of us - we cannot eat the food we just got.Upset that all our food was going to waste, and with the sausage sandwich looking so good, my friend and I went back up to the buffet to try again. These were our options: cajun catfish on the Mongolian barbecue, a menu item not reserved for the Lenten season and tuna fish. I don't like catfish, so I grabbed a salad, tuna fish sandwich and a piece of cheese pizza. I gave the Hickey the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe they forgot it was the start of Lent. After all I guess there were enough non-meat items that one could make a meal out of.

Then came the Friday after break when I returned to the Hickey to see much of the same. It looked like any other day at the Hickey, meats galore, and some sad-looking breaded fish. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Because this is a Catholic university, I didn't think there would be any meat products offered in the Hickey on Fridays during Lent. I do, however, realize not everyone who goes here is Catholic and some who are don't comply with the no-meat obligation. Maybe the Hickey staff could continue to grill burgers and chicken to appease these people.

It just bothers me how Fridays during Lent seem like any old day in the Hickey with one, maybe two, unappetizing, non-meat items offered. It's almost like a slap in the face to look at the buffet and see chicken, sausage, meatballs and pepperoni. More than anything, it surprises me.

Granted, you can get salad or pasta or cheese pizza, but you can get these things any day. How about making some special Lenten meals Catholics have enjoyed on Fridays for years? The Hickey needs to offer meals that will make students want to comply with their Catholic obligation. I don't know too many kids who like catfish, and I don't know how anybody could like the awful frozen fish that is offered. Why not serve some halibut, perch, shrimp or lobster bisque or anything that tastes good and allows students to follow their obligation?

Why does the Hickey staff jazz food choices up for St. Patrick's Day with green ranch dressing and green Jell-O, but it can't go the extra mile for a Friday during Lent? I am pretty sure the school has more Catholics than full-blooded Irish. This is St. Bonaventure, not Notre Dame.

Finally, if the Hickey is going to continue to serve the typical menu items Fridays during Lent, at least put up some signs reminding students not to eat the meat if they are Catholic. Several people have told me they forgot it was Friday, and they accidentally ate meat. They didn't intend to break their obligation, but the ordinary menu made it completely slip their mind.

A prospective student touring the hickey on a Friday during Lent wouldn't even be able to tell St. Bonaventure is a Catholic university from the food offered. To me, this is pretty sad.

Mike Vitron, Class of 2012