Being RAW in college - help for a friend.

[MOTH]

Hey everyone! I have a dear friend of mine who is wanting to make some dietary changes in her life. She is going away to her first year of college pretty soon, and would like to stay raw as much as possible. She will have a meal plan...

...any advice on how she could stay raw in college?

[rawstrength]

I don't have any advice, but I will be in the same situation this fall (though I am already raw). So I'll be waiting here for answers!

[phedre]

I wasn't raw in college, though I was vegetarian so there is some overlap at least.... In college I was allowed to have a blender in my dorm room so hopefully she could take some fruit and veggies out of the cafeteria and blend up some green smoothies as study snacks. My dorm also always had a big salad bar with tons of fruits and veggies all the time. I think for my school, the trickiest part would have been the salad dressing then and I'm not sure what to suggest for that, it would have to depend on what the school might offer...

[lytlsprout]

she should talk to the food service and let them know she has special eating needs and see what they can provide for her. often you don't have to be on a full meal plan so she could make some of her own food. the good thing is the things you need for raw you can have in your dorm room. blender, food processor, dehydrator... though i might go with the nesco stacking kind. her roommate might get a bit annoyed. and then to seek out the closest grocery stores. i just finished my master at the U of MN and there was one coop within a few blocks of one of the dorms and another within a mile, also on the bus line from the far side of a campus. and then when she has to do food service head straight for the salad bar. they always had olive oil and vinegar and i'm sure she could ask for some lemons.

[beckx]

order nuts and dehydrated treats for the dorm room, make her own salad dressings (might not even need a blender for this if they're oil and vinegar based) to take with her to the cafeteria... it seems that there are almost always decent salad bars in college cafeterias. if she could have a food processor and blender in her room that's all you really need to make lots of things.

it's definitely doable. best of luck to her.