Every college has tons of restaurants and food choices for their students to enjoy both on and off campus. Some colleges/universities have a wide range of restaurants to eat at (including fast food, healthy food, etc.), and other universities unfortunately don't have a lot to choose from when it comes to where to eat. Radford University is one of those colleges.
Now I'm not saying that what we're given is all bad, but the fact that we have to drive 20 minutes to Christiansburg to get to our closest Panera Bread, or 30 minutes to get to our closest Chipotle or Moe's is a real pain in the butt for us Radford students. We'd much rather eat near our dorms/apartments but the reality is that we really don't have a lot to choose from.
On RU's campus, we have Au Bon Pain, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Wendy's, Papa John's, Hissho Sushi, Pinkberry, Wild Greens, and two dining halls. Notice how the majority of these restaurants are fast food and there are few healthy options to choose from, which makes it hard for students living on campus to avoid the "freshman 15."
Off campus is a little better. We have places like Sharkey's and Brewin' Around, but we still have a majority of fast-food places (some restaurants have several locations within Radford!).
I'm not saying that all students at Radford hate the food options we're given, but a lot of people I have talked to say that they wish we had other restaurants near us and that they wouldn't mind getting rid of some of the other options.
And the great thing is, there are multiple locations that Radford could use for new restaurants. We have several places in downtown Radford that aren't being used by any company and a lot of them have enough space for a new restaurant.
Here's a list of some places that a majority of RU students would love to have at their disposal:
1. Tropical Smoothie
2. Moe's Southwest Grill
3. Chipotle
4. Buffalo Wild Wings
5. Sweet Frog
6. Panera Bread
7. Texas Roadhouse
8. Olive Garden
9. Ruby Tuesday
10. T.G.I. Friday's
11. Red Lobster
12. Noodles & Company
13. Qdoba Mexican Grill
14. Jamba Juice
15. Any Italian restaurant
I know it's a long process for a community to get new restaurants, and we understand that. But, if we were able to put any of the above restaurants close to or even on campus I think there would be an increase of students who don't gain the freshman 15. These restaurants give students the opportunity to have a wider range of healthy food options that they don't have to go to a different city for.
At Radford, students tend to eat at the same places over and over again; after a while, they get tired of eating the same things. If we added to or replaced some of the restaurants we have on and off campus that aren't really popular, I think it would benefit the Radford community and make us feel like we have an exciting selection of places to eat at.
