Students at colleges in the US have talked of being offered cereal without milk, beef and cheese in vegan meals and even no food at all as they complete two weeks of self-isolation before returning to college.
New York University has since released a statement apologising to students after hundreds of them reported TikTok ‘s colossal failures, but said it had struggled to cope with almost 20 percent of students demanding personalised meals.
Until returning to class next month, out-of-state students must self-isolate for two weeks in their dormitories as part of the restrictions on coronavirus, with NYU offering three free meals a day to keep them inside.
One student @coolbeans_grace posted a video claiming her severe allergy was being ignored by the university.
“I have a bad gluten allergy and this is what they gave me – a chicken sandwich,” she said. “I’ve emailed them to tell them, ‘Hey I’m still getting these meals that have stuff I can’t eat in them,’ and they haven’t responded.
“And I have no sense of smell also, so I can’t tell whether this is good or bad, and there’s just random bits of plastic in it. Like this wasn’t wrapped but there’s plastic in it.”
@coolbeans_grace #nyu #college #fyp #quarantine #backtoschool #nyc #glutenfree
Another vegan @filmgrrrrl69 showed how her vegan dinner consisted of a bag of chips, muesli bar, orange and pudding-which was made of “real milk” on the bottle.
@rafael.bryant
“For a multimillion-dollar PRIVATE school, they should be giving you guys your money’s worth,” one person wrote on Tiktok, while another added: “I’m livid. My mother is coeliac. I can’t even imagine a school you pay $70,000 for disregarding allergies or the general welfare of students.”
Other people joked that the meals were so bad it was “Fyre-fest vibes” and, “It’s almost like they’re intentionally doing this at this point.”
“Let the Hunger Games begin,” one person commented.
“My first week of university I was enjoying frosh (orientation) week, parties and new friends. These poor kids are literally starving. THIS IS NOT FAIR,” another wrote.