This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at JHU chapter.
The real purpose of the FFC isn’t to feed us cooked food; it’s actually a grocery store on campus, allowing us to go shopping for necessities. The following are groceries that you can grab from the FFC instead of having to go to Giant, Eddie’s, or Target (and it’s all cheaper than buying at CharMar!).
- Fruit: bananas, apples, pears, plums, and oranges are among the fruits that the FFC lays out, ripe for the picking (pun fully intended). Apples are staples and there are usually bananas. The other fruits often cycle through so the offerings depend on when you go.
- Vegetables: above the stations, there are baskets with peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, and more. It’s never been explicitly stated that you can’t take them so why not just take them? After all, people grab them all the time and I have yet to see someone get yelled at.
- Bagels: these are the one thing the FFC gets right, albeit somewhat inconsistently. When the bagels are fresh, they’re soft and absolutely delicious. Plus, there are three varieties so you’re bound to find one you like.
- Bread: also near the bagels so you can take some slices of bread for future use.
- Spreads: near the bagels, there’s cream cheese, jams, and sunflower butter (an allergy friendly peanut butter substitution). You can take big, heaping scoops and put them in your takeout container.
- Eggs: there are fresh eggs by the omelet station. I can’t count the number of times I’ve grabbed a couple eggs and either wrapped them in a napkin or put them in the takeout box to bring back to my suite.
- Cereal: bring a container to the FFC and a friend. Fill said container with cereal of choice and use your friend to shield your actions from view. Not going to lie, I’ve done this before and it totally works.
Honestly, the possibilities are endless. Just put extra stuff in that takeout container and don’t let yourself be limited! And if you have meal swipes, it’s way more worth it to get groceries from the FFC rather than going off campus or paying those ridiculous CharMar prices.